Let’s start with the good news. Iowa seems to have found the answer to controlling college costs. This year, tuition at Iowa public universities grew just 3.5 percent. And, if the Iowa Board of Regents has it’s way, tuition will not be raised at all next year. Then, the year after that, tuition will be lowered by $1,000, without any reduction in academic programs. To make the plan work, the Iowa legislature will need to add just 2.5% to the current higher education budget.
Now for the bad news. Although Americans have always been proud of the opportunity for social mobility in the United States, a new study has disclosed that fewer than 30% of young people whose parents did not attend college will do so. The U.S. now ranks 14th of the 37 countries studied in the overall percentage of 24-37 year old citizens with a college education. And, only two of the nations…New Zealand and Canada…send a smaller percentage of students with non college educated parents to institutions of higher education. Although the overall percentage of college educated U.S. residents is still fairly impressive (better than all but a few nations), it is largely because of older citizens.