Unit 3: Students are academically prepared though parents are not financially prepared

As an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education prepares action-oriented analyses of pressing policy issues facing the states and the nation regarding opportunity and achievement in higher education-including two- and four-year, public and private, for-profit and nonprofit institutions. Because the National Center is not affiliated with any institution of higher education, with any political party, or with any government agency, it is able to improve higher education by providing information that is not biased or exclusionary. The Center's Board of Directors is comprised of business, government, and education "decision-makers."

One of the Center's reports, Squeeze play 2009, the public's view on college costs today, highlights the public's view that cost remains the partition between higher education and qualified students. The survey upon which this article makes its assertions has been following public opinion about higher education since 1993 and periodically conducts research to gauge this. The Center conducted a recent survey in 2008 that determined that over 2/3s of Americans think higher education is a necessity and a bridge to middle-class status; yet, it is still not accessible to the majority of qualified students because of cost. A trend in public thinking like this one affects the degree to which students even apply to college which consequently continues to have an impact on higher education finance. Additionally, the report says that the survey found that Americans think the cost of higher education is rising faster than other things and wonder if the rise is justified. Accountability for the rising cost of education is obviously not just a concern of higher education governing bodies but of the general public as well.

The implications of this particular public opinion could be detrimental to higher education. The report says that higher eduction may lose the "good will" of the public if policy makers do not address the cost concerns of the public. The research from this public poll solidifies the stance that maybe higher education is not as accessible as most think and it is not because students are not prepared academically for college; it is because student's parents are not prepared financially for college.

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Squeeze play 2009: The public's views on college costs today. Retrieved October 14, 2009, from http://www.highereducation.org/reports/squeeze_play_09/squeeze_play_09.pdf