Even before the pandemic, many students — especially those from historically underserved groups — were leaving high school unprepared for the educational demands of good jobs and too few were completing degrees. Now, at a time when almost all good-paying jobs require education beyond high school, there are significant declines in college enrollment.

The National Student Clearinghouse reports a 13 percent decline in freshman enrollment since 2019, including a 32 percent decline for Black students and a 20 percent decline for Latinx students in public two-year colleges.

Sadly, these trends will likely continue. The number of high school seniors applying for federal financial aid is down by 270,000 since 2019, with the greatest declines among students from high-poverty high schools and from high schools serving large concentrations of students of color. This does not bode well for the future of a country that requires a well-educated citizenry.

As Congress narrows the scope of President Biden’s social spending bill, the Build Back Better Act, it is vital to maintain its proposed investments in college retention and completion grants, as well as community college and industry partnership grants. States and colleges must have the funding and flexibility to expand the numbers of dual enrollment and early college high schools, where students earn college credit (up to an associate degree) before graduating high school.

Read the full article about college enrollment by Deborah Delisle and Chris Gabrieli at The Hechinger Report.