Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees

In perhaps yet another sign that the USA is in decline other than perhaps militarily, the New York Times reports that growing gap between the rate at which college degrees are being completed in the United States compared to other countries threatens to undermine American economic competitiveness. I suspect the Bible thumpers and far right demagogues secretly welcome this trend inasmuch as it requires an ignorant populace to further religious fundamentalism and to provide a fertile atmosphere for loonies like Sarah Palin and other darlings of the GOP base. Sadly, far too few people seem to care. The USA is squandering billions and billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan even as the nation's infrastructure crumbles, millions of citizens go without preventive medical care and college becomes less affordable for more and more students. Yet the self-anointed super patriots continue to delude themselves in believing that the USA is better than every other nation. I'm sorry, but something is seriously f*cked up with this picture. Here are highlights from this disturbing story:
*
The United States used to lead the world in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. Now it ranks 12th among 36 developed nations.
*
“The growing education deficit is no less a threat to our nation’s long-term well-being than the current fiscal crisis,” Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, warned at a meeting on Capitol Hill of education leaders and policy makers, where he released a report detailing the problem and recommending how to fix it. “To improve our college completion rates, we must think ‘P-16’ and improve education from preschool through higher education.” While access to college has been the major concern in recent decades, over the last year, college completion, too, has become a leading item on the national agenda.
*
Canada now leads the world in educational attainment, with about 56 percent of its young adults having earned at least associate’s degrees in 2007, compared with only 40 percent of those in the United States. (The United States’ rate has since risen slightly.)
*
While almost 70 percent of high school graduates in the United States enroll in college within two years of graduating, only about 57 percent of students who enroll in a bachelor’s degree program graduate within six years, and fewer than 25 percent of students who begin at a community college graduate with an associate’s degree within three years.
*
The problem is even worse for low-income students and minorities: only 30 percent of African-Americans ages 25-34, and less than 20 percent of Latinos in that age group, have an associate’s degree or higher.
*
The group’s first five recommendations all concern K-12 education, calling for more state-financed preschool programs, better high school and middle school college counseling, dropout prevention programs, an alignment with international curricular standards and improved teacher quality. College costs were also implicated, with recommendations for more need-based financial aid, and further efforts to keep college affordable.
*
I suspect teaching creationism as science is not something found in international curricular standards. More and more, the rest of the world must be laughing at the USA. What's ironic is that the Christianists whine about too much emphasis on self-esteem in our schools, and yet the nation suffers from that same problem: too much self-esteem with no basis to support it.