Brian Wallace
College education has become a contentious topic in the last decade or so. Its positive impacts have been somewhat diminished as the field has become more dense. The price has also become steadily higher, with more and more student loans amassing in the U.S. However, that’s not to say that a college education has in any way become irrelevant or useless.
Kentucky, with a postsecondary education rate of 29%, is keenly aware of this. College education, on average, means less reliance on social programs, more professional engagement, and higher income. Kentucky, by as early as 2030, wants to raise their college education rate to 60%.
This is an undeniably lofty goal, but it’s also one which serves the individuals and state at large. One of the biggest issues in achieving this goal is the rapidly declining rates of select groups. Older adults and low-income students have seen massively declining enrollment rates in the past decade. And that’s without even mentioning the rates of graduation at certain institutions.
In response to this, Kentucky has been investing in improving the outcomes and education of its people. Or maybe even more importantly, the people of Kentucky have been investing in themselves. The James Graham Brown Foundation, for instance, donated over $2 million to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.
It’s these donations and large scale programs like the Kentucky Student Success Initiative that are starting to make some change. Students today need to feel financially secure entering college, and need to have the resources to make it through college. The question looking forward is if Kentucky and the programs within it can provide these resources to its people.
Source: Kentucky Student Success Collaborative
