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Look around and we will find many students unable to complete their education and obtain a degree today. They struggle to balance the rising cost of education working part time. most of them are unable to handle this stress and eventually drop out.

In three years, statistics show that only one in five graduates from community colleges. In some states only one in ten students are able to complete their graduation. This has led to a sad state where our country has slipped down to the tenth position in world with respect to graduation rates.

Our President has again reiterated his commitment towards reversing this trend in a recent Macomb campus speech. Realistically however, it is alarming to see that there are many obstacles on the way to enhancing graduation rates in the past two years as is evident with conversations with experts and available data reviews. 2020 graduation rate goal as of now does not seem feasible.

According to Cornell University policy analysis and management assistance professor, Michael Lovenheim, the outlook is grim. He has also co-authored a study that revealed that students take not less but more time to graduate today predominantly due to budget cuts in this field, steep tuition hikes and increase in enrolments.

Lovenheim’s study dispelled common misconception that the reason for dip in graduation rates is because students arrive unprepared. Our graduates are actually very well prepared as they arrive full of hope. Where they go wrong is in choosing unselective public universities and community colleges that face severe budget cuts that spend very little as per-student expenditure and that feature large classes.

Students are forced to work harder to pay off the rising tuition costs and this in turn makes it impossible for them to get through school. Students who take longer to complete their degrees are those susceptible to drop outs. This factor, that has always been a reason for drop in graduation rates has only gotten worse, especially in the past couple of years.

To enhance graduation rates in community colleges, President Obama allocated funds to the tune of $12 billion. This was eventually diverted towards getting the health care bill passed. A career training program was then initiated by the US Department of Labor as a compensation for this and an amount of $2 billion was allocated towards this.

This money again did not actually happen to the extent portrayed. The first $500 million became accessible only this January. Schools that propose winning proposals for career training will benefit from this funding only in end of September. Rest of the money is in clear sight of budget cutters in the Congress.

It is easy to list out initiatives and allocate funds but it is imperative to ensure that the funds actually make way towards fulfilment of the purpose it was intended for. This is the only way we can make progress in education and regain our position on the top.

There is no doubt that resources are short and there is not enough support for higher education in our country right now. Unless steps are taken to clear these hurdles on a war footing, we are going to slide further in our position.