After all these years you would think that the obvious would have received attention : The culture of the lower classes is antithetical --as a generalization-- to educational attainment. You would know this viscerally if you had spent any serious time among the lower classes in your life. Not that such experience, if it is nullified by entry into the upper social class, necessarily makes much difference. But the fact remains that most of our elected officials simply are uncomprehending when it comes to the reality of life at the bottom. The culture at the bottom needs to change. Instead, it is promoted, at least in a de facto sense, because the lawyers and former business people who can afford to run for office are uncomfortable discussing cultural issues and most don't know diddle about them and leave it all up to the market. Regrettably, the market has given us gangsta rap, Hollywood garbage, obsessive web porn, and a laundry list of bad stuff, much of which out-competes the good stuff. Hence a new decline in religion despite an era, now passed, of increase in interest in religion. And philosophy and literature and other things. Well, here is proof. The lower classes are dragging US educational achievement down with them Read and weep. Billy ========================================================== (http://www.nytimes.com/)
____________________________________ July 23, 2010 Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees By _TAMAR LEWIN_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/tamar_lewin/index.html?inline=nyt-per) Adding to a drumbeat of concern about the nation’s dismal college-completion rates, the _College Board_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/college_board/index.html?inline=nyt-org) warned Thursday that the growing gap between the United States and other countries threatens to undermine American economic competitiveness. The United States used to lead the world in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. Now it ranks 12th among 36 developed nations. “The growing education deficit is no less a threat to our nation’s long-term well-being than the current fiscal crisis,” Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, warned at a meeting on Capitol Hill of education leaders and policy makers, where he released a _report_ (http://completionagenda.collegeboard.org/reports) detailing the problem and recommending how to fix it. “To improve our college completion rates, we must think ‘P-16’ and improve education from _preschool_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/education_preschool/index.html?inline=nyt-classifi er) through higher education.” While access to college has been the major concern in recent decades, over the last year, college completion, too, has become a leading item on the national agenda. Last July, _President Obama_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per) announced the American _Graduation Initiative_ (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-American-Graduation-Initiative-in- Warren-MI/) , calling for five million more college graduates by 2020, to help the United States again lead the world in educational attainment. This month, on becoming chairman of the _National Governors Association_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_g overnors_association/index.html?inline=nyt-org) , Gov. _Joe Manchin III_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/joe_manchin_iii/i ndex.html?inline=nyt-per) of West Virginia announced that he would lead a college-completion _initiative_ (http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.6c9a8a9ebc6ae07eee28aca9501010a0/?vgnextoid=30ba898ce62b9210VgnVCM1000005e0 0100aRCRD&vgnextchannel=759b8f2005361010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD) . In May, Grantmakers for Education, an organization for those who make gifts to educational programs, convened a group of philanthropists and policy experts to talk about how to bolster college-completion rates. “We spend a fortune recruiting freshmen but forget to recruit sophomores,” Michael McPherson, president of the Spencer Foundation, said at the _meeting_ (http://edfunders.org/downloads/GFEReports/GFE_FromAccessToSuccess_FundersGuide.pdf) . In April, _Melinda Gates_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/melinda_gates/index.html?inline=nyt-per) gave a _speech_ (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/speeches-commentary/Pages/melinda-gates-2010-ameri can-association-of-community-colleges.aspx) at the American Association of Community Colleges convention, urging _community college_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/community_colleges/index.html ?inline=nyt-classifier) officials to lead the way on college completion and pledging that the _Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/g/gates_bill_and_melinda_foun dation/index.html?inline=nyt-org) would contribute up to $110 million to improve remedial programs, in an effort to increase graduation rates. “The stars are aligning in a way that gives me some hope,” said William Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, who hosted the Washington discussion along with Mr. Caperton. “This is a problem that’s been around for too long. But now there’s beginning to emerge a focus of attention and activity that quite frankly we haven’t had till now.” Mr. Kirwan said that the United States had fallen behind other countries over several decades. “We led the world in the 1980s, but we didn’t build from there,” he said. “ If you look at people 60 and over, about 39-40 percent have college degrees, and if you look at young people, too, about 39-40 percent have college degrees. Meanwhile, other countries have passed us by.” Canada now leads the world in educational attainment, with about 56 percent of its young adults having earned at least associate’s degrees in 2007, compared with only 40 percent of those in the United States. (The United States’ rate has since risen slightly.) While almost 70 percent of high school graduates in the United States enroll in college within two years of graduating, only about 57 percent of students who enroll in a bachelor’s degree program graduate within six years, and fewer than 25 percent of students who begin at a community college graduate with an associate’s degree within three years. The problem is even worse for low-income students and minorities: only 30 percent of African-Americans ages 25-34, and less than 20 percent of Latinos in that age group, have an associate’s degree or higher. And students from the highest income families are almost eight times as likely as those from the lowest income families to earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24. The problem begins long before college, according to the report released Thursday. “You can’t address college completion if you don’t do something about K-12 education,” Mr. Kirwan said. The group’s first five recommendations all concern K-12 education, calling for more state-financed preschool programs, better high school and middle school college counseling, dropout prevention programs, an alignment with international curricular standards and improved teacher quality. College costs were also implicated, with recommendations for more need-based financial aid, and further efforts to keep college affordable. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
