Great N Y Times Piece by David Leonhardt

This is really good and raises the right question.  I explain what I mean by that in my comment posted below.

A Case Study in Lifting College Attendance – NYTimes.com.

“Thank you, Mr. Leohardt! By putting a face on a big problem in education; and then, pointing out that less affluent students have a rougher time in college, you have shifted the responsiblity where it belongs – the colleges.

You wrote, “..the college completion gap between rich and poor has grown sharply..”

The authors of “Paying for the Party – How College Maintains Inequality” demonstrate (statistically and by case studies) how lower-income students don’t have the resources to compete IN college. The most important resource that these students don’t have is the guidance that affluent, college-degreed parents can give. They could get that guidance from the colleges, but they don’t. Most colleges focus their attention on the higher profit margin students who want to have other resources provided them from the school since they don’t need the guidance.

As a former professor, I know how it important it is to watch what happens to students when they get to college. Will the “wants” of some students be catered to, while the “needs” of all students are mainly ignored? That has been the case for too long. If it continues, it will be a terrible dissapointment for many worthy young people. If we don’t watch the colleges extremely carefully, it will continue.

(I have a blog www.inside-higher-ed.com where I try to help people watch what really happens in universities. I also think “Paying for the Party should be required reading for anyone concerned about education.)”