고덕동수학 current U.S. Department of Education’s mission statement, adopted in 2005 under President Bush, is to “promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.” It can be found at: https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/mission/mission.html. 2 Truman, H.S. “Statement by the President making public a report of the Commission on Higher Education,” December 15, 1947. Retrieved from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=12802. 3 Tomaševski, K. (2001). Special Rapporteur Report on the Right to Education Mission to the United States of America, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Retrieved from https://www.nesri.org/sites/default/files/Special_Rapporteur_Education_USA.pdf. President Carter signed the U.N. Covenant in 1977, but thus far no President, Democrat or Republican, has presented the Covenant for ratification by the U.S. Senate. The U.N. Covenant has been ratified by 166 countries worldwide but the United States in one of a handful of counties worldwide that has not become a binding party to the Covenant. Introduction 6 2018 Equity Indicators Report In the wake of growing student debt and a renewed focus on the rise of economic inequity in the United States, in recent years a number of proposals have been advanced for “free” higher education. Scholars and politicians have begun again to speak of extending the right to quality higher education as a human right.4 With a stated goal of improving college affordability, several states (including Tennessee, Oregon, and New York) have adopted some type of “free tuition” programs. “Free community college” programs are also being created in local communities across the U.S. (For a database of current programs see: http://www.ahead-penn.org/creatingknowledge/college-promise). The U.S. has a core constitutional and founding commitment to equality of opportunity for all citizens. The U.S. Supreme Court has made rulings barring discrimination based on race/ethnicity within the United States and has ruled in favor of increasing diversity for the good of the institution in college admissions decisions in Fisher v. Texas. Thus far, the courts have not ruled on inequities in access to higher education based on family income, parents’ education, or socioeconomic status. But, if postsecondary education is necessary to obtain work that pays a living wage, then all individuals, regardless of family income, parents’ education, socioeconomic status, or other demographic characteristics, should have equal opportunity to participate, complete, and benefit.5 A Question of Will. In 1967, in Where do we go from here?, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. addressing and calling for a “war on poverty” argued that: “There is no deficit in human resources, the deficit is in human will.”6 Fifty years later, these words could be applied to many current social problems, including persisting inequality in higher education opportunity and outcomes. This 2018 report and the dialogue questions we pose seek to place the Indicators within the wider discussion of equity and in the context of the role that higher education is playing in a society under conflict and stress. Whether or not we believe that higher education is a civil right, an essential element of a full democratic society or a fundamental requirement for achieving the American dream, the 2018 Indicators report, like previous reports, shows that higher education opportunity and outcomes remain highly inequitable across family income groups. Moreover, on many indicators, gaps are larger now than in the past. The disinvestment of state funds for public colleges and universities since the 1980s and the declining value of federal student grant aid have aided in the creation of a higher education system that is stained with inequality. Once known for wide accessibility to and excellence within its higher education system, the U.S. now has an educational system that sorts students in ways that have profound implications for later life chances. More work
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