Public Policy And Administration Student - 2374 Words

To: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education From: Kathy Corena, Public Policy and Administration Student, James Madison University Date: 4/30/2015 RE: Racial and Economic Discrepancies in College Enrollment and Completion  ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬______________________________________________________________________________ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬ There are persistent racial and income gaps among students enrolling in and completing college. Some programs are in place to help lessen this gap, but they only reach a small percentage of the population. The government and the United States as a whole should consider investing more time and money in helping students attain some form of education after high school. There is evidence of what works and these†¦show more content†¦In a 2011 report on educational attainment, the OECD found that in the last decades the amount of adults reaching a tertiary level of education has increased worldwide. In the United States, 41.1% of people 25-34 years old had a tertiary education in 2009. Out of people 55-64 years old, 40.8% had a tertiary education. When comparing numbers from 1999 and 2009, there has been a 5.4% increase for people ages 25-64 that have a tertiary education in the United States. The percentages have risen from 35.8% in 1999 to 41.2% in 2009. Only half of the student s enrolled in 4-year institutions will graduate within 6 years (Supporting best practices, 1, 2012), therefore it is important to provide support to students to assure successful completion of a higher education. Trends in the past 50 years. The Pew Research Center analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data and found differences between educated young adults now and young adults in other generations. Over the past half century, the earning gap by education has widened. Millennials ages 25-32 who are college graduates and have full-time jobs earn $17,500 dollars more annually than full-time working high school graduates. Millennials with only a high school educations earn 62% of the salary of college graduates. When the baby boomer generation was ages 25-32, high school graduates earned 77% of what college graduates earned. When you compare the numbers, high school graduates