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Study: Alaska worst in U.S. at producing college graduates
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| Contributor | The Sunset Provision |
| Last Edited | The Sunset Provision May 08, 2008 01:05pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Thursday, May 8, 2008 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Juneau's fifth-graders got a peek of college life earlier this week when they took a tour and some classes at the University of Alaska Southeast.
But for many of them, it could be the last time they set foot on a college campus as a student, according to a study released Wednesday by the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education.
The study, written by former Juneau resident Ron Phipps, said Alaska's "'student pipeline' is the leakiest in the U.S." For every 50 ninth-grade students in Alaska, only three will graduate from college in the next 10 years, according to the study.
And 19 of those 50 students will drop out of high school, according to the report. The statistics used in the report come from the federal Department of Education, according to Lora Jorgensen, an outreach officer with the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education.
Phipps, who is a senior associate with the Institute for Higher Learning Policy in Washington, D.C., said education does not have a strong place in Alaska's culture.
"There simply is not this sense that education is important relative to other states," he said in a phone interview.
Phipps said there are a number of reasons why Alaskans don't value education as much as other states, including the fact that there are ample opportunities in the state to make a good living without a college degree.
But Phipps said physical jobs and higher education don't have to be mutually exclusive, and having a degree gives older workers more opportunities as their bodies stop holding up to demanding work.
The report suggests that the state should work toward making college more affordable and accessible for Alaskans, and that its K-12 schooling should be geared more toward making students ready for postsecondary education.
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