“Report: Public universities becoming ‘far richer, far whiter'”

by David Safier

Sigh.

I posted the other day about rising tuition costs nationwide moving access to college back toward the rich, which is a dramatic reversal of our recent efforts toward greater social mobility through higher education. When money, not merit, determines who get the college degrees from the top schools, mediocrity and increased generational social stratification are the results.

Now comes this from USA Today, confirming my concerns:

The entering and graduating classes at many of the nation's leading public universities are looking less and less like the state populations they were founded to serve, a report said Wednesday.

[snip]

[O]verall, the report says the schools are less generous to needy students than they could be; it calls "obscene" the $761 million spent in 2007 on students with family incomes over $80,000 — nearly as much as on those with incomes under $54,000. And even as the representation of minorities improved slightly, gaps in enrollment and graduation rates persist.

You can check here to see which public universities look best on equality issues. Florida, Maine, Utah and West Virginia earned high marks. Arizona is nowhere to be found.