College Crisis-Lawmakers, schools must ease financial burden of higher education

As we watch graduates around the country cast their caps into the air and, with a mix of elation and trepidation, graduate into the work force, it’s time for the precious American ideal of equal opportunities to graduate too, – by getting more students through the front gate of college, and ensuring that once there they have an equal chance to get a higher degree and a high-wage job.

By Joseph Lieberman for the Orlando Sentinel- Missoulian

More than 40 years ago, I was the first in my family to go on to college. My father worked days and many nights as the owner of a small store to pay my way without any outside assistance. But today, the choice my parents made is impossible for most Americans – because over the past 20 years, the cost of college has outpaced family income, and most government aid has shifted from grants to loans.

As a result, students and their parents are borrowing more than ever. A report released earlier this month by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education lays out the trends in stark but clear terms: The dream of college is slipping out of reach, especially for middle-and low-income Americans.

Under the burden of mounting debt – and frequently arriving at college academically unprepared – students all to often don’t finish the school they start. In our increasingly competitive, information-driven economy, where college is the key opening almost every door to economic opportunity, that’s a serious crisis.

The problem is worst among low-income and underrepresented minority students. Forty-eight percent of all young people from high-income families graduate college by the age of 24 – compared to just 7 percent of all young people from low-income families.

That opportunity gap threatens America’s economic vitality. In my state of Connecticut alone, eliminating it could generate $1.2 billion in additional income per year. And, more important, it threatens our values – in particular the promise of equal opportunity.

We in Washington haven’t done enough to balance the equation – and the Bush administration, sadly, shows no signs of making college education a top priority. In fact, in this area, the president is majoring in talk and minoring in action.

Look at what’s happened with Pell Grants- the most important tool we have to assist low-income families with the cost of college. In 1986, the Pell Grant covered 98 percent of the tuition at a public four-year college. Now, it’s down to just 57 percent. As a candidate for president, George W. Bush called for a long-overdue increase in the Pell’s purchasing power. But for two straight years now, he’s opposed exactly that in his budget proposals.

And last month, the administration called for the elimination of a federal program that allows college graduates to consolidate their student loans at a government-supported fixed interest rate. Though a storm of criticism seems to have forced the president to reverse course, his intentions were clear, and clearly damaging to middle-class Americans struggling to pay for college.

It’s past time to get serious about the college affordability and completion crisis. Last year, I introduced a bill that would be a first step forward. It would enable families to deduct up to $10,000 a year in tuition payments from their taxes, increase the Pell grant, and significantly increase the tax deduction on college loans.

We need to make those changes law, and go further. I am developing a major higher-education reform bill that will focus on:

Resources – so that we bring college within the reach of all American families, regardless of income.

Readiness- so that students are better prepared for college when they graduate high school.

Results – so that all students graduate and get into high-wage jobs.

This really is a multidimensional challenge. Public schools need to do a better job of aligning their coursework with college entry requirements. Universities must forge potent partnerships with states and local districts to offer young people a seamless education, from kindergarten to college graduation.

Government should reward colleges that make real strides in improving graduation rates. And businesses should help pave professional pathways so that when students do graduate, there’s a job for them.

This is a pass-or-fail test. Our universities are the best in the world. But they can’t continue to represent our most precious values – or fuel the most productive and ingenious economy in the world – until they educate students at all rungs of the economic ladder, and help all Americans, regardless of race or wealth, climb higher.

Joseph Lieberman is a Democratic senator from Connecticut who also ran as his party’s vice presidential nominee in 2000.