Professor teaches at a local university.
This year’s elections will have a significant impact on the future of college admission. While most Americans focus on the presidency, state and local elections also have a profound impact on which students are best prepared for college, who gets in, and how much they will pay. Here are five ways this year’s national and local elections could affect the college admission process.
Funding for college admissions counselors at public high schools
The college admission process is complex, nuanced and bureaucratic. In order to succeed, students need experts who can guide them. Yet in the average American public high school, each school counselor is responsible for serving 480 students each year. In states like Arizona, it’s 924 students per counselor. When all the research shows that college leads to a better life, all students should have access to the counselors who can help them get there. Unless we elect local, state and federal policymakers committed to improving the state of public education – including a sufficient number of counselors at every high school — students will continue to struggle to find someone at school who can help them apply to college.
High school students’ access to courses that prepare them for college
College admission officers are among the first to admit there are vast inequities across schools in this country. African American students are nearly 20 percentage points less likely than white students to have access to college preparatory coursework, and social class is still the strongest predictor of whether a student succeeds academically. This is an issue that can be mitigated by robust funding for K-12 schools. The financial downturn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic will make this situation worse unless policymakers pass legislation that ensures that access to educational opportunity is not limited to wealthier school districts. The Strength in Diversity Act is one of several bills in Congress that would address this issue.
Colleges’ ability to take race into account in admissions
In light of America’s current racial reckoning and a clear need for diversifying all institutions, colleges have been targeted by the current administration for their efforts to calibrate their admission processes to ensure that students applying from under-resourced schools and underrepresented communities are placed on equal footing with their more privileged peers. The Department of Justice has attempted to bring the weight of the federal government down on Harvard and Yale with no acknowledgement that the regressive education policies it seeks will only widen the educational gap in America. If low-income, first-generation and students of color are rapidly growing populations, we must ensure they have equal access to postsecondary education. This isn’t solely a social justice imperative, it’s one that will ensure the nation’s future economic prosperity.
Funding for higher education
For the past 20 years, the cost of higher education has continued to climb, and so has the bill shouldered by students and families. According to The Institute for College Access and Success, 62% of college seniors who graduated from public and private nonprofit colleges in 2019 had student loan debt, and they owed an average of $28,950. In the past 30 years, the share of financial aid for college comprised by federal student loans has grown 356%. These two phenomena are rooted in declining state support for postsecondary education and need-based financial aid programs that contribute mere pennies on the dollar toward making college affordable. If this election continues to produce the herd thinking that got us here, students and families will continue to pay a far greater price for college than in most other countries in the world. Policies and plans vary widely, but we must implement a state-federal compact to ensure there is a uniform commitment to investing in higher education.
International students’ status
In addition to generating $41 billion in revenue and creating nearly half a million jobs each year, international students have become part of the fabric of the American higher education experience. But the last four years have been particularly damaging for them. Our federal policies toward international students have taken an ugly turn, from travel bans to restrictions on student visas, to proposed regulations placing arbitrary limits on the period of stay. The world has noticed. International student enrollment has plunged since 2015 and particularly in the more recent term. If current policies continue, you can expect far less engagement between American and international students on campuses, which will profoundly limit opportunities for intercultural learning. Finally, absent the revenue generated by international students, you can expect prices will continue to rise for all students seeking postsecondary education.
Americans have the power to use their vote to change the course of educational opportunity for an entire generation of students. The stakes for college access in America have never been higher.
