Connecticut’s population of young workers ages 25 to 34 declined 30 percent between 1990 and 2004—the deepest plunge of any state in the country, according to recent research by the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute.
That demographic reality, coupled with the high-tech nature of the state’s innovation economy, means Connecticut has an unrivaled interest in making the most of all its future workers. But that’s not what’s happening. For every 100 public high school ninth-graders in Connecticut, only 76 will graduate from high school four years later. Only 46 will enter college the fall after they graduate, only 35 will return to their college for sophomore year and only 24 will earn associate degrees within three years of enrolling in college or bachelor’s degrees within six years of enrolling. That’s right … 24 of 100!
The problem is particularly acute in the state’s urban areas such as Hartford, where less than 5 percent of the high school class of 2003 is expected to graduate from a four-year college by 2008.
Despite the best efforts of teachers and professionals, too many of our students either drop out of high school or are allowed to graduate without having learned what they need in order to succeed academically or socially in college.
Others work hard only to find out the resources society invests in student aid and educational tax benefits do not provide them with a real chance to achieve the American Dream. An American from the top quartile of family income is six times more likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree by age 24 than his counterpart from the bottom quartile.
Of course, this gap takes hold long before students enter high school. A benchmark University of Michigan study found that children in the highest socioeconomic group entered kindergarten with cognitive scores 60 percent higher than those of the lowest socioeconomic group.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposals to invest $40 million in quality preschool education and $50 million in new financial aid for public and private college students show she is one of those rare political leaders who understands the complexity of these pipeline problems.
Yet other stakeholders have roles to play as well.
More Options
We need to stop making it easy for children to fail. One sensible step would be to adopt a policy like Indiana’s in which a rigorous college and work-prep curriculum becomes the default high school course. If a student really wants to opt out of the college-prep curriculum, the student and his parents or guardian should have to explicitly choose that life-altering assignment in writing.
Another step would be to encourage New England employers to pledge not to hire permanent workers who do not have a high school diploma unless they have a solid plan and timetable to earn a GED, regardless of their age. The statistical connection between failure to earn a high school credential and criminal justice and social welfare costs is staggering.
With one in four American 18-year-olds living in California, New England faces both an economic and demographic imperative to ensure that none of our young people are overlooked.
There is much at stake. Unless the current pattern is altered, we will lose our collective capacity to sustain a vibrant democracy, let alone compete economically in a global marketplace.
Evan S. Dobelle is president and CEO of the New England Board of Higher Education.