I recently attended the screening of the new documentary, “Unlikely.” The film examines issues within higher education, including the dropout crisis and inequity in the education system. It follows five students and their experiences in college. It threw out disheartening statistics: that only 46% of college students graduate, that less than 4% of students at elite institutions are in the lowest income bracket, and that 15% of students at elite institutions are in the top 1%. This film highlighted many issues in education that I’m passionate about and would like to do something to change.
While access at certain institutions has grown, such as Davidson with its strong financial aid policy, there are still major inequalities in opportunity for students around America. There is a degree of exclusion at all colleges, especially at “elite” schools, whether that is intentional or not. If a student comes from a low-income background or a poorly-funded school, they are much more likely to struggle in college; students are not equally prepared for higher education. This is a partial cause of “imposter syndrome,” in which students feel like they don’t belong in their success. The lack of preparation for lower-income students often starts at the very beginning – students who do not develop proper reading and writing skills in elementary school quickly fall behind peers who are given the resources to succeed. This leads to a “snowball effect,” in which students at well-funded schools are prepared for college, and students at poorly-funded schools have fallen further and further behind. In addition to this phenomenon, students who came from poorly-funded schools are likely to need to work while in school, distracting from their studies, making an already difficult situation worse. Even though many schools have adopted better financial aid policies in recent years to combat inequality in education, the effort needs to begin from the ground up.
I believe it is time for a revolution within education. The current “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality needs to be shifted to a paradigm in which we recognize challenges that different individuals and groups face within the education system. A nationwide shift in ideology and attitude towards education, from kindergarten until college, is necessary to help increase opportunity for everyone. In addition, the institutions that hold up the current education system needs changes that benefit low-income students.
