A subset of current HS students unlikely to go to college: HuffPost

[polly_mer]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/teenage-breadwinners-pandemic-work-high-school_n_5f64e367c5b6480e896e3a0c

On another thread, I have asserted that some people are just screwed based on their current situation and the life paths open to them.  The examples in this article illustrate that situation.

[mythbuster]

While the Pandemic has certainly exacerbated this situation, the scenario shown here has always been true for some. It's part of the reason we have child labor laws.

To relate this to higher ed, I have never understood the Financial aid obsession with attending full time. So many of my students would thrive if they could work and take 9 credits per semester, as opposed to 15. They would perform better in their classes, which ultimately would lead to a higher graduation rate. But so many are forced into 12+ credits per semester because of the obsession with the 4 year graduation rate. It's sad to see really bright students essentially set up to fail because of stupid outside rules.

[sinenomine]

Financial aid is also tied into a minimum of 12 credits. I agree that many students at my institution would be better off taking 9 credits consistently.

[Hibush]

While the Pandemic has certainly exacerbated this situation, the scenario shown here has always been true for some. It's part of the reason we have child labor laws.

To relate this to higher ed, I have never understood the Financial aid obsession with attending full time. So many of my students would thrive if they could work and take 9 credits per semester, as opposed to 15. They would perform better in their classes, which ultimately would lead to a higher graduation rate. But so many are forced into 12+ credits per semester because of the obsession with the 4 year graduation rate. It's sad to see really bright students essentially set up to fail because of stupid outside rules.

The teenager in the Huffpo story is affected by a somewhat more sinister policy.  The story is couched a bit in how the social safety net is not catching this family effectively. But really, the policy at many Federal agencies, including Education, is to make life so hellish for undocumented immigrants that dealing with murderous gangs back in El Salvador looks better. Helping bright, but undocumented, students succeed in college is contrary to the policy goals.

[Wahoo Redux]

Interesting thoughts about 9 credit hours & aid.  Who is doing anything about that?

This describes a good portion of the people at our current uni.  For this reason I am always flexible on due dates when I get the panicked email from the married or single parent or the student working FT.  We have a terrible graduation rate.

What else can be done, however?  I just don't know what one can do to reverse the course of something this big and problematic, something sociocultural.  Been watching Waiting for Superman and kept thinking the whole way through about how we want simple, implementable answers to extremely complex problems and we want someone very specific to blame for systemic cultural failures.

[marshwiggle]

Been watching Waiting for Superman and kept thinking the whole way through about how we want simple, implementable answers to extremely complex problems and we want someone very specific to blame for systemic cultural failures.

I can't think of anything you've said before that I agree with more than this.

[wareagle]

Some forms of financial aid are available to part-time students, but the options decrease significantly when you drop below 12 credits.

So many of those rules were put into place in the 60s and 70s, before a lot of low-income or first-gen students even considered going to college.  And I knew students whose parents would borrow the max in Stafford loans, invest the money, and make a profit on it because the interest rates on the loans were far less than what they could get from their investments.  Tuition was cheap, and they could pay out-of-pocket; the loans were just vehicles to increase their net worth. 

There were no "two-thirds" rules, no "satisfactory academic progress" stuff, and you could stay in school forever on the government's dime (hence the term "professional student").  Alas, those days are no more....