More poor people are attending, but fewer are graduating

From Think College Is Expensive? Wait Until It’s Free by Jason L. Riley. The fundamental issue is that education subsidies do not lead to better education outcomes and they lead to a misallocation of time and money.

Though schools ought to be more discriminating about whom they admit, student financial-assistance programs push them to admit students who are not prepared to succeed. In 1970, about 12% of recent college grads came from the bottom 25% of the income distribution. Today, it’s about 10%. “We’ve had a decline in poor people graduating from college. More poor people are attending, but fewer are graduating. We have not really improved making college a vehicle for achieving the American dream.”

Related: Remember When Politicians Promised to Make College Affordable? by James Freeman.