The Future of College Access: The Declining Role of Public Higher Education in Promoting Equal Opportunity

Abstract

Beginning in the 1980s, a series of forces conspired to make access to public higher education more difficult for low-income and disadvantaged students. Rising tuition, changes in the federal student aid programs, and the decline of affirmative admissions all played a role. This article shows how, in the decades ahead, these troubling trends are poised to accelerate. The fiscal conditions driving up tuition will continue. The emergence of a new generation of student aid programs will further shift benefits away from the low-income and toward the middle- and upper-income students. Similarly, increased competition will make admission to public colleges even more difficult. The cumulative result will be diminished access for the most needy students. This development is likely to reverse the traditional role of these institutions in promoting equal opportunity. Indeed, public higher education may come to play the reverse role of reinforcing and widening the nation’s income distinctions.

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