Economic success: It’s all about 9th graders
by October 7, 2009 4:46 pm 88 views
Statistics regarding the estimated college success of the average Arkansas 9th grader must change if Arkansas’ economy is to successfully move into the “ideas economy,” Tim Wooldridge told members of the Fort Smith Rotary Club.
Wooldridge, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Public Universities, said during the Wednesday (Oct. 7) lunch meeting that it is not “overdramatic” to claim that more support of higher education is the “only way for our state to move forward.”
The AAPU was formed in 2006 as a lobbying arm for the state’s four-year universities. Wooldridge completed a 16-year stint as a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives and Arkansas Senate representing the Paragould area.
He told the Rotarians that his job now is to travel the state gathering “ambassadors” for higher education because “public policy is driven by public pressure.” His goal, and that of university chancellors in Arkansas, is to convince Arkansans that the best way to improve Arkansas’ per capita ranking — now 47th in the U.S. — is to increase the number of Arkansans holding a college degree.
Arkansas universities receive 14% of the state’s education expenditures, and state funding of higher education has dropped from around 60% to 39% in the past 20 years, Wooldridge explained. That level of financial support must change if higher education is to help “insulate” Arkansas from economic turmoil and transition.
According to Wooldridge, of 100 Arkansas 9th graders, only 12 will gain a four-year degree and just four will obtain a two-year degree within six years of graduating high school. The three primary reasons for a lack of college success are first generation issues (lack of family support from those without college degrees), lack of money and not academically prepared.
“Those are the three great disablers (in the U.S.) that, unfortunately, converge in Arkansas,” Wooldridge told the Rotary crowd.
Wooldridge was hesitant to express unequivocal optimism that the Arkansas Lottery will help higher education budgets and increase the number of college graduates. His concern is twofold: Arkansas legislators could see the lottery proceeds as a reason to reduce higher education funding; and, Arkansas legislators may not help universities support the increased number of college students resulting from the lottery scholarship.
The Arkansas Lottery was approved by Arkansas voters in 2008 as a means to help state residents with scholarships to public and private nonprofit two-year and four-year colleges and universities within the state. Lottery proponents say it could generate as much as $100 million annually for scholarship support.