In that, we've succeeded. Perhaps three quarters of high-school graduates go to college, including community colleges. But half or more don't finish. A new study from the Department of Education reports that these students achieve only modest gains in skills and income. And the finding is strongest for black and Hispanic students.
Tough courses do more than transmit genuine skills.
These are hard questions for parents and society as a whole. If the answers were self-evident, we'd have already seized them. The Washington Post Company Related Links Higher Ed. The U.S. Dept. of Education's college-planning site. FinAid features financial aid information such as aid calculators.