Who Should Attend College? Maybe Everyone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/upshot/college-for-the-masses.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

Sunday New York Times - College for the Masses excerpt

The political scientist Robert D. Putnam named his new book on inequality, “Our Kids,” as a lamentation. In past decades, Mr. Putnam argued, the United States made a series of investments that essentially treated children as everyone’s children. The best example was the rise of universal high school in the 20th century, an expensive undertaking that did not directly benefit many taxpayers.

Back then, a high school education was the new ticket to the middle class. Today, a college education is. And when it comes to people’s own children, there is remarkably little disagreement about the value of college, even when it requires taking on debt. Affluent, middle-class and lower-income parents alike, in overwhelming numbers, aspire for their children to finish college.

Americans agree that “our kids” should go to college. The debate is really about who qualifies as “our kids.”

David Leonhardt is the editor of The Upshot, a New York Times politics and policy venture.