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In July, reporter Jon Marcus wrote a piece for The Hechinger Report looking at Obama’s college graduation goal and how much progress has been made.
Now he’s been interviewed by Boston NPR’s Here and Now program about the fact that this generation could be the first to be less educated than their parents.
From the Here and Now site (where you can listen to the interview):
It’s back to college time and more students than ever are attending this year.
College enrollment has been trending up for over a decade and according to a new study by the Pew Research Center, it’s now at a historic high. In 2010, the last year for which statistics are available, there were 12 million students in college between ages 18 and 24.
Now here’s the “but.”
For every five students who start in community college, only one finishes within three years, even though community college programs are supposed to be two years or less.
The numbers at four year colleges are not much better — only around half the students who enroll manage to get their Bachelors’ degrees in six years.
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