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Nation Sees Small Improvement in Graduation Rates
By Catherine Groux
Posted July 13, 2012 12:36 PM
New data shows more Americans are earning college degrees.New Education Department data shows that the U.S. is making small improvements in the number of young adults pursuing higher education. According to the report, about 39.3% of adults between the ages of 25 and 34 held an associate's, bachelor's or graduate degree in 2010, marking a half-percentage point increase from 2009.
A 2011 College Board report shows this puts the U.S. behind nations like Korea, Canada, Russia and Japan, where more than 55% of young adults have earned a college degree.
As the high cost of college is one of the reasons many Americans fail to graduate, Education Secretary Arne Duncan made a plea for states, individual schools and the federal government to keep the cost of earning a degree down.
"To meet the president's goal for America to become No. 1 in the world for college graduates all of us—the federal government, states, and institutions—must work together. We've made some progress, but the combination of deep state budget cuts and rising tuition prices is pushing an affordable college education out of reach for middle class families," Duncan noted. "As the President has said, the countries that out-educate today will out-compete us tomorrow. The federal government has done a tremendous amount to increase the amount of aid available to students. But we need states and institutions to meet us halfway by doing more to keep college costs down."
The College Board reports that between 2001-2002 and 2011-2012, published tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year schools rose by an average of 5.6% per year beyond the rate of general inflation, while private four-year colleges saw a price increase of 2.6% annually beyond inflation.
