A degree from an accredited college or university shows a potential employer that you are able to think critically and solve tough problems. The more you learn, the higher your salary becomes!

A college degree is an extremely worthwhile investment in your future. In fact, on average people who graduate from college make over $1,000,000 more during their lifetime than those with just a high school degree.

According to the American Institutes for Research, more than $1 billion was spent during the 2008-2009 school year to education community college students who dropped out within one year. In Texas alone, taxpayers spend more than $74 million to go toward the education of students who fail to complete their degree.

“Believe me, we are very concerned,” said Charles Cook, who is the vice chancellor for Houston Community College, in a recent chron.com article. “The focus is shifting. It’s not only how do we get students in the door, but how do we ensure that they succeed?”

In conducting the study, researchers only considered those full-time students who were enrolled in college for the first time. The researchers then considered the state and local tax appropriations that went toward those students as well as the amount of state and financial aid those students received. Some specific Texas colleges and the costs they incurred during the 2009-09 academic year toward educating students who later dropped out were as follows:

• Houston Community College – $4.1 million
• Lone Star College – $3.8 million
• San Jacinto College – $3.6 million

According to Mark Schneider, who is the president of the American Institute for Research, which is the institute that conducted the study, the study was not meant to criticize community colleges. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that they have a low success rate. For example, approximately 12 percent of Texas community college students earn their degrees within three years and about one-third earn their degrees within six years. About half of those who attend four-year universities, on the other hand, earn a degree within a six year period. Yet, due to the relatively low cost of attending a community college, these institutions have largely avoided the increasing amount of scrutiny that higher education has faced over the last few years.

“We have to pay attention,” said Schneider. “It’s too expensive not to.”

While community college officials acknowledge that they have poor graduation rates, they are also concerned by their rapidly-increasing enrollment as well as the level of education among the students who enroll. Not only are many students choosing to enroll in community colleges in order to save money as compared to a four-year university or college, but community colleges are also training displaced workers as well as non-English speakers and students who are in need of a great deal of remediation.

“But the schools accept these students,” said Schneider. “They have to do better with the students they have.”

To help address their poor graduation rates, community college officials are looking at many possible approaches. One step has been to encourage faculty members to reach out to students who miss class or who do not participate in class discussions. Some are also requiring students to maintain a certain grade point average in order to participate in club sports, while others are making more of an effort to work with students on goal-setting and developing strategies for achieving those goals.

“It’s almost like practicing preventative medicine,” said Donetta Goodall, who is the vice chancellor at Lone Star College. “When they first come into college, we start talking about their goals.”

Since Texas community colleges practice an open admissions policy, anyone with a high school diploma or GED who is interested in pursuing a higher education is accepted into the schools. Officials report that many of the students are not prepared to complete college level work and, therefore, are placed in remedial classes. Since many students become frustrated by taking classes that do not count toward their degree programs, many community colleges are now offering shorter-term classes that make it possible for students to begin their college classes more quickly. Yet others are offering summer sessions to help prepare students for placement tests, which may make it possible for them to completely skip over remedial classes.

The case of one would-be University of Texas student, Abigail Fisher, has the potential to put an end to affirmative action at public universities. In fact, Fisher’s attorneys have already filed a petition to seek Supreme Court review of her case, which has left Austin’s Federal District Court unsure of how to rule in the case.

Fisher, who is a white student, claims she was denied admission to the University of Texas because of her race. After suing in Federal District Court, Judge Sam Sparks attempted to use a 2003 Supreme Court decision to help him rule on the case. The decision, which allows schools to use racial preferences in higher education, left him baffled regarding how the decision could be applied to Fisher’s case. According to the decision, which followed the Grutter v. Bollinger case in 2003, made it possible for public universities to sort people according to race. As such, Judge Sparks ultimately ruled that the University of Texas had the right to take Fisher’s race into account.

Legal experts who have analyzed Fisher’s case believe the Supreme Court is likely to hear the case and to make a decision on it by June. Given the changes that have taken place to Supreme Court membership since 2003, it is likely that the Supreme Court will cut back on or even eliminate the use of race in admissions decisions. As a result, some are concerned that universities will start admitting more white and Asian students and fewer black and Hispanic students.

When the Grutter v. Bollinger case was heard in 2003, it was decided with just a 5-to-4 vote. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was the author of the majority decision, retired in 2005. She was then replaced by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who has a record of voting with the more conservative justices when it comes to decisions regarding racial classifications. Chief Justice John G. Roberts has also expressed criticism to programs that classify people according to race.

“Racial balancing is not transformed from ‘patently unconstitutional’ to a compelling state interest simply by relabeling it ‘racial diversity,’” Roberts wrote in a 2007 decision that limited the use of race in order to integrate races in public schools.

Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Alito have agreed with this assertion. While Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has been less categorical, he has never voted to uphold an affirmative action program in the past.
“There thus seem five votes – Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito – to overrule Grutter and hold that affirmative action programs are unconstitutional,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, who is the dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine, is quoted as saying in a recent New York Times article.

Despite the perceived unconstitutionality of affirmative action, supporters of these policies maintain that they have helped improve the education of all students involved.

“There is no longer any doubt as to the educational benefits of racially diverse students learning together and from each other,” said John A. Payton, who is the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

While Payton maintains that studies have shown that diverse campuses are more effective at educating students of all races and backgrounds, others disagree. Peter Wood, who is an anthropologist as well as the author of “Diversity: The Invention of a Concept,” claims that racial diversity is problematic in education.

“The part of diversity that matters to me and a lot of academics is the intellectual diversity of the classroom,” said Wood. “The pursuit of a genuine variety of opinions that are well thought through and well grounded is essential. But that has an off-and-on, hit-or-miss connection with ethnic and racial diversity.”

Through the Grutter decision, admissions officials were granted the ability to admit a “critical mass” of minority students. According to a brief filed in Fisher’s case by the Asian American Legal Foundation, however, Texas took this decision too far by trying “to make the racial composition of its student body mirror the racial composition of the state of Texas.” As a result, Asian students also found themselves discriminated against when applying to Texas colleges and universities. Representatives from the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, on the other hand, have stated that Asian students have benefited from being exposed to a more diverse body of students.

While the Grutter case allowed states to take race into account when making admissions decisions, it did not require race to be a factor. According to Fisher’s case, the murkiness of the system used by Texas colleges and universities regarding their admissions practices is also questionable. While those students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school are automatically admitted, Fisher’s lawyers maintain that the remaining spots are largely determined by race. If her case is heard by the Supreme Court, however, this practice may soon be changing dramatically.