我们知道，在美国，教育成就是收入能力的最大预测指标。现在，比以往任何时候都更需要大学教育来确保一份好工作。这种趋势加上国家要求提高全球竞争标准的国家要求，从而推动了大量的教育改革努力，从共同核心标准到基础倡议。例如，the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested almost $4 billionto increase the levels of college-readiness in K-12 education. Additionally, these efforts are often framed as issues of equity, arguing greater college preparation expands opportunities for low-income and minority students.
In the meantime, while we focus our attention on getting the next generation of students “college ready,” we have thousands of students whose American dream is deferred – where college tuition expenses limit the ability to attend higher education institutions for even the highest-achieving underrepresented students. That’s what financial aid is for, right? Wrong. Many states have cut the share of state income going to need-based higher education aid and budget a larger proportion to merit-based assistance. Of the roughly fifteen states that do offer financial aid programs, the majority of money is allocated on merit-based (or academic) qualifications compared to need-based aid, $1.5 billion and $350 million respectively (Heller 2004; Ness & Tucker 2008). For instance, in Georgia, the lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship program which provides tuition assistance at a Georgia public institution has no income cap restrictions.
通常，大多数人都认识到上大学并不平等，并且家庭背景会影响获得大学学位的机会。实际上，大量的文献致力于研究学生的社会经济地位（SES）如何影响大学的访问（例如父母的参与，社会资本，课程等）。但是，从讨论中遗漏的是如何currenthigher education policy limits college access for low-income families (and by extension, minority families). Initial enrollment rates of academically qualified low-income high school graduates in four-year colleges fell from 54 percent to 40 percent between 1992 and 2004 (ACSFA 2010). The most recent studies find that grant aid from all sources is not adequate to promote access of qualified low- and moderate-income high school graduates. The troubling trends of the last two decades suggest that in terms of access to higher education, inequality by income is actually increasing.
国家报告指出，随着收入和种族的增加，学费上涨，废除平权行动的废除以及不断增加的大学入学竞争。这些模式在1960年代和1970年代取得了巨大进展之后，在学费稳定，基于需求的经济援助，创建工作学习计划的创建增加了低收入和第一代大学生的大学出勤率。
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the appeal and rationale behind universal targeted programs as a political strategy. Especially in times when most Americans worry about rising college education costs, everyone feels economic pain and uncertainty. But what gets lost in the universalism rhetoric is that merit-based financial aid (particularly programs that rely heavily on SAT/ACT scores) reorganizes student aid budgets to fund programs that actually make college access even more unequal. ReadNational Public Radio’s article about Alonzo Mendez, a 19-year-old student in Georgia, for more information on the burden of rising tuition costs for students, the impact of state budget cuts, and merit eligibility criteria for state scholarship money.
Scholarships often make or break the decision to go on to college for low-income students like Mendez. However,research suggests many more affluent students already bound for collegereceive merit-based funds despite not needing them. While students from traditionally underrepresented groups in higher education and who face the greatest financial obstacles to get to college have increasingly more difficultly entering four-year institutions. Thus, hypothetically (and ambitiously), even if we do begin to make significant progress in college preparation for future students, we need to critically examine the role of federal and state-level policy in reproducing the status quo or in expanding opportunities that are currently foreclosed by a family’s income….particularly in a country that views education as the great equalizer.
请继续关注即将举行的金斯伯里研究（后续的High Flyers report），该问题解决了在低贫困学校中高成就者的大学准备和学术成长的问题。
*This blog title pays homage to African American poet and social activist Langston Hughes, whose workMontage of a Dream Deferredjuxtaposed the state of Harlem in the 1950’s to the rest of society.
