Billion Dollar Dropout Riddle

Researchers are scratching their heads over the massive number of college dropouts. “During a five-year period, more than $9 billion was spent by state and federal governments to support students at four-year colleges and universities who left school before their sophomore year,” according to the American Institutes for Research (AIR).  “California, Texas and New York led the nation in government spending on students who dropped out before their second year.”

“Every fall, first-year college students receive significant funding from colleges, states and the federal government,” said Dr. Mark Schneider, an AIR vice president. “And every spring, hundreds of thousands of students decide not to return to college.”

“When students enroll in a college or university and drop out before the second year, they have invested time and money only to see their hopes and dreams of a college degree dashed.” Dr. Schneider is the former commissioner of the federal National Center for Education Statistics.

“These costs can be heartbreaking for students and their families, but the financial costs to states are enormous,” he noted.

AIR researchers “found that the 30 percent of first-year college students who failed to return to campus for a second year accounted for $6.2 billion in state appropriations for colleges and universities and more than $1.4 billion in student grants from the states.”

“Additionally, the federal government provided $1.5 billion in grants to these students. The study did not examine community colleges, where first-year dropout rates are even higher.”

Further, the AIR researchers reveal that, “Most students attend public colleges or universities which are subsidized by taxpayers through state appropriations and grants to students. Nationwide, these subsidies average nearly $10,000 per student per year.”

“With high dropout rates, come high losses in state monies: Thirteen states posted more than $200 million of state funds lost to students dropping out before the second year of college. The states include California ($467 million), Texas ($441 million), New York ($403 million), Illinois ($290 million), North Carolina ($285 million), Ohio ($277 million), Florida ($275 million), Indiana ($268 million), Michigan ($239 million), Georgia ($237 million); Louisiana ($213 million), Tennessee ($205 million) and Kentucky ($201 million). The average state spent $120.5 million in state subsidies to first-year drop-outs between 2003 and 2008.”

The AIR claims that “Nationally, only about 60 percent of students graduate from four-year colleges and universities within six years.”

“Over the same five-year period, the cost of state appropriations–just for these first-year dropouts–increased by 15 percent. And, expenditures on student aid grants increased by 30 percent from the states and 40 percent from the federal government for students who never returned as sophomores.”

Here’s two hypotheses worth investigating:

• Maybe these students aren’t ready for college. One big clue would be a look at the remediation rates among them; or

• Maybe the colleges aren’t ready for them with substantive coursework.

Either way, the blame would seem to lie with the colleges that either:

• Took them to fill spaces, even in remedial classes; or

• Drowned them in a sea of “studies” when they were ready for Shakespeare and science.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.

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