Since last week, several people have shared a recent New York Times article with me that discusses how Americans are souring on the value of college education (the article notes that “outside the United States, meanwhile, higher education is more popular than ever”).
Before I read it, I sent the first person a quick response: “Does the article say anything about affluent Americans opting not to send their kids to college?”
It doesn’t, just as I suspected.
In spite of the fluctuating trends, at TeenSHARP we’re going to keep pressing forward with our mission of helping Black, Latino, and low-income students graduate from top colleges with minimal or no debt.
Like the most privileged in America, we want our students to be able to study abroad, build their social capital, engage in research, and think big thoughts!
Then we want our students to be on a pipeline into careers with high earnings and influence. We reject the false college vs. career readiness choices some want to feed us.
Last week, in our alumni group chat, one of our alums asked who else is in Europe as he’s studying abroad in Spain. Two other students at different top colleges shared that they’re also in Spain this semester. Another shared that she’s in London. The week before that, we celebrated three of our alums who were among the 100 selected for the prestigious Obama-Chesky Scholarship which is only available to college juniors.
Another TeenSHARP alum in their twenties sent me a message recently, sharing that they received a job offer with a $120,000 salary. Only 2.5% of Black Americans born into poverty ever earn a six-figure salary.
I congratulated them and then said…”ask for more.”
Our students who have been historically marginalized deserve much more than the scarcity “either/or” and “take what you can get” approaches that our education system is serving them.
Students also definitely deserve better than education leaders who divest from higher education after they personally used it to grow wealth and privilege over generations.
Let’s talk about that!
Update: That alum who asked for more eventually accepted a $130,000 salary for the new job.
Urgency of Now 