Panel, Conference Presentation
Bridging the College Gap: Preparing Low-Income Students to Succeed
Milken InstituteTom Boysen, Elaine Nguyen, George Weiss, Anna McCullough, Michael Lomax, Stephen Knapp
- High-income/low-scoring and high-scoring/low-income students are each projected to have a 30 percent chance of obtaining a bachelor's degree.
- Adding one year of college to a regional workforce is expected to generate a 17.4 percent per capita increase.
- The number of states with over 50 percent of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch is projected to rise from four to 17 between 2000 and 2011.
- The "Say Yes to Education" program plans to expand its reach from 65,000 to potentially 250,000 children by adding two cities to the existing Buffalo and Syracuse sites.
- Say Yes partners are required to rewrite teachers' and Teamsters union contracts within the first four to five years of the program.
- Say Yes will fund extended school days and years, disperse health and mental health clinics, hire social workers for each school, and offer free tuition through 64 private college partners, including eight Ivy League institutions.
- Juvenile crime in Syracuse is projected to decrease by 50 percent, while 90 percent of participants attending private colleges in the city over the last three years are expected to continue their education.
- National projections suggest 68 percent of all students will continue their college education, while 64 private colleges associated with Say Yes offer free tuition to participants.
- QuestBridge projects 1,600 student admissions last year, with approximately 5,000 scholars expected in partner schools over four years.
- QuestBridge plans to open its platform to families, companies, and foundations to identify more students, predicting that even rejected low-income applicants will perform well in the general college application process.
- Financial aid purchasing power is expected to decline annually, with Pell Grants buying less than they did 50 years ago as education prices rise.
- Low-income students are expected to increasingly enroll in proprietary institutions, potentially incurring significant debt without completing degrees, necessitating a revolution in financial aid systems involving business and philanthropy.
- The D.C. schools scholarship program has maintained a roughly 90 percent graduation rate over 20 years, while George Washington University's fixed tuition program provides cost certainty and plans to expand online articulation with Virginia community colleges.
- A White House summit in January is expected to highlight non-legislative actions, with no significant federal changes anticipated over the next two years due to political gridlock.
- The Gates Foundation initiative, which has invested $1.6 billion since 1999, aims to achieve a 90 percent graduation rate for its 17,000+ participants by the time they turn 20, potentially sending more low-income students to elite institutions than any other entity.
- The University of California system is expected to have nearly 50 percent of its students classified as low-income, while community colleges are projected to maintain graduation rates in the teens and HBCUs to achieve a 37 percent rate despite 70 percent low-income enrollment.
- Parent PLUS loans are expected to see limited borrowing following recent restrictions and are projected to maintain a 3.9 percent default rate.
- The Posse Foundation affects thousands of students, though scaling to millions remains a challenge, and the U.S. workforce faces a potential deficit in 21st-century skills compared to other nations.
- Common Core Standards are expected to remain a point of political division, while Nevada school districts focus on overcrowding and business operations, with the state board gaining authority over standards and accountability.
- The Communities in Schools pilot in Las Vegas will continue as a local philanthropic effort due to insufficient state funding, with identified best practices expected to be replicated elsewhere.
- Demographic shifts are expected to result in minorities becoming the majority group, which is projected to include the nation's poorest and least educated citizens.