Is the ‘College for All’ Movement Ending? - Commentary

Ben Wildavsky, visiting fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of “The Career Arts: Making the Most of College, Credentials, and Connections,” and Richard Whitmire, author of six books on education, including “The B.A. Breakthrough”, write:

The size of the latest first-year class at Eastern Michigan University plunged by 12.5 percent compared to last year, part of a national trend that saw freshman classes nationally declining by an average of 5 percent. That drop, a preliminary figure documented by a new college enrollment report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, startled higher education officials around the country. They thought the pandemic enrollment losses were in the rearview mirror.

Not every college saw lower freshman numbers, but universities that serve high numbers of low-income students, such as Eastern Michigan, saw a decline of more than 10 percent, driving down the national averages. The main reasons for the drop, experts agreed, were threefold: massive problems with the revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which made it difficult for students to apply; a demographic decline; and a strong economy luring young people into the workforce.

Those powerful factors are hard to deny.

There may be something more ominous at work, however—the beginning of the end of the “college for all” movement that greatly expanded college access for low-income students.