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Students are getting the message that a higher education is a necessary prerequisite for a middle class life. Today, more than 85 per centum of high school graduates eventually brand their style to college. But much of the increase in college-going isn't at traditional four-year universities with grassy quads and intellectually stimulating seminars. Instead, the nation's customs colleges are absorbing the largest chunk of the new students.

Equally an outside observer, I observe it tragic that the rich-poor carve up is growing larger among our nation's colleges. Arguably, low-income students, many of whom are the starting time in their families to attend higher, need more resources than their wealthier peers.

Fortunately, some of the fiscal pressure on customs colleges is easing. With the improving economy, more than and more young adults are returning to the workforce. The National Student  Clearinghouse Research Heart reports that student enrollments at public community colleges have fallen for two years straight since 2013, to 5.ix million students. That should aid enhance per-pupil spending at community colleges a chip, but it remains far below what wealthier students at iv-year colleges are getting.

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This story near higher spending was written past Jill Barshay and produced past The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, contained news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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Jill Barshay writes the weekly "Proof Points" cavalcade about didactics enquiry and data, covering a range of topics from early on childhood to higher education. She taught algebra to 9th-graders for...