Should College Be a Right?

• Author: MOCKLER, JOHN
• Position: Brief Article

California offers B students tuition

YES

California Governor Gray Davis has taken the dramatic step of saying to the state's high school students, if you do your part academically, we'll do our part to ensure that you have the money for college. Under the program the Governor has signed into law, any student with financial need (income of $64,100 or less for a family of four) who maintains a B average in high school will be eligible for financial aid that will cover the full cost of tuition at a public college in the state or provide up to $9,703 toward tuition at a California private college.

Opponents of the program have suggested that California high schools will lower their standards to ensure that everyone gets a B and a scholarship. This is pure speculation, without evidence. The logical conclusion of that argument is that some students simply aren't cut out for college and will never make it unless high schools and colleges lower their standards. We reject that gloomy and snobbish assessment.

California has adopted the most rigorous academic standards in the nation for K-12 students, and is moving rapidly toward implementation of a high school exit exam based on those standards.

Governor Davis and the California Legislature have demonstrated their belief that society is best served when our children are well educated. We believe no student should be left behind--and lack of funds should not be a barrier to a college education.

--JOHN MOCKLER Interim Secretary of Education State of California

NO

California's Legislature has created a new educational entitlement: Lots of kids will be going to college free of charge. Sound good? It isn't. It's likely to harm the state's universities and undermine its drive for standards in elementary and secondary education. And it won't address the real problem: the inadequate academic preparation of too many high school graduates, especially those from low-income families. The program is advertised as helping the "needy." But more low-income students will attend college only when they have the skills to do the work demanded. The new policy's main beneficiaries are thus likely to be middle-class students. A high school diploma is already close to an entitlement in the view of the public; now college may become one too--instead of something that is earned. What school will have the courage to turn down applicants who have been given funds with a promise of "access"? And already-inflated grades at high...