South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Tapped asks if attempts to expand access to higher education and increase the share of Americans with postsecondary credentials  makes  it harder for low-income students to enter the middle class.

… By expanding the types of careers for which college is considered necessary, are we actually creating barriers that previously didn’t exist? That’s a bigger problem if students are going to college only to find themselves with a job they could have gotten without a college degree a few years ago and without, as this research suggests, the critical thinking skills that allow them to enter the educated class. There’s nothing wrong with making higher education open to everyone, but perhaps it’s time to ask what we want colleges to do. If students are meant to get high-level skills that make them adaptable in an ever-shifting job market, then we need to do that better. If college is career-oriented, then we really need to reconsider which kinds of jobs actually require classroom training. If students are going off to college and coming out no more educated in the long run, we’re actually doing them a disservice.