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Policy Dialogue: The Problems and Promises of Higher Education in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2021

Sara Goldrick-Rab Open the ORCID record for Sara Goldrick-Rab [Opens in a new window]  and
David Labaree Open the ORCID record for David Labaree [Opens in a new window]
Sara Goldrick-Rab*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
David Labaree*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
*
Email: sgr@temple.edu
Email: dlabaree@stanford.edu
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Abstract

Nearly 70 percent of American students enroll in postsecondary education immediately after graduating high school. Yet college and university completion rates remain highly disparate across social and economic groups. White students in the US are 20 percent more likely than Black and Latino students to graduate, and students from high-income backgrounds are roughly five times more likely to graduate than their lower-income peers. As a result, many students leave higher education without a degree, bearing debt that cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. The upshot is that much of the $1.7 trillion in student loan obligations today is held by those who cannot afford to repay it—an immediate crisis for millions of individuals and a looming threat to the US economy. How did we arrive at this juncture? And what should we do from here?

For this Policy Dialogue, the HEQ editors asked Sara Goldrick-Rab and David Labaree to explore the past, present, and future of pressing issues facing American higher education. Goldrick-Rab is professor of sociology and medicine at Temple University as well as President and Founder of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice in Philadelphia. She is also the chief strategy officer for emergency aid at Edquity, a student financial success and emergency aid company, and founder of Believe in Students, a nonprofit distributing emergency aid. Labaree is a past president of the History of Education Society and the Lee L. Jacks Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. Their dialogue takes readers on a quick and heady jaunt across time, across the country, and across almost all institutional types in higher education.

HEQ Policy Dialogues are, by design, intended to promote an informal, free exchange of ideas between scholars. At the end of the exchange, we offer a list of references for readers who wish to follow up on sources relevant to the discussion.

Keywords

community collegeseducation accessfree tuitionhigher education fundingstudent debt
Type
Policy Dialogue
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , August 2021 , pp. 341 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 History of Education Society

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References

Additional Readings

Bloomberg, Michael. “Why I'm Giving $1.8 Billion for College Financial Aid.” New York Times, Nov. 18, 2018.Google Scholar
Brand, Jennie E., Pfeffer, Fabian T., and Goldrick-Rab, Sara. “The Community College Effect Revisited: The Importance of Attending to Heterogeneity and Complex Counterfactuals.” Sociological Science 1 (Oct. 2014): 448–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brint, Steven G., and Karabel, Jerome. The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900–1985. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broton, Katharine M. “Rethinking the Cooling Out Hypothesis for the 21st Century: The Impact of Financial Aid on Students’ Educational Goals.” Community College Review 47, no. 1 (Jan. 2019): 79–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldin, Claudia, and Katz, Lawrence. The Race between Education and Technology. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Goldrick-Rab, Sara, Broton, Katharine, and Colo, Emily Brunjes. Policy Brief 16-02: Expanding the National School Lunch Program to Higher Education. Wisconsin Hope Lab: Madison, April 25, 2016.Google Scholar
Labaree, David. A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nichols, Andrew Howard, and Anthony, Marshall Jr. “Graduation Rates Don't Tell the Full Story: Racial Gaps in College Success Are Larger Than We Think.” The Education Trust, May 5, 2020, https://edtrust.org/resource/graduation-rates-dont-tell-the-full-story-racial-gaps-in-college-success-are-larger-than-we-think/.Google Scholar
Institute, Pell. “Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States: 2018 Historic Trend Report,” http://pellinstitute.org/downloads/publications-Indicators_of_Higher_Education_Equity_in_the_US_2018_Historical_Trend_Report.pdf.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Barry. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. New York: Harper Perennial, 2004.Google Scholar