Harold Sirkin, via a kind Erich Zellmer email:
The United States continues to invest massive amounts of talent and treasure on two goals: preventing students from dropping out of high school and increasing the percentage of high school graduates who go on to college.
We do everything possible to encourage college attendance. During the most recent year for which data are available (the 2011-2012 academic year), the federal Pell Grant program, intended to help low- and moderate-income students finance college, cost taxpayers about $33.6 billion, about half the U.S. Department of Education budget.
Yet, many Pell Grant recipients never graduate. They flounder, drop out, become statistics. As a result of this and other factors, in September the teenage unemployment rate was 21.4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
How can we prevent such waste?
The College Board, in a recent report funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, offers a variety of useful ideas, such as providing larger grants to students who demonstrate a commitment to their studies by taking heavier course loads.
That’s one approach. But let me suggest another, which Germany has pioneered.