Fox News, February 5, 2016: (Op-Ed) Talented low-income students belong at top colleges. Why aren’t we helping them get there?
“Across our nation, outstanding students from families with low incomes approach college on a very different path than students from wealthier families. And in most cases, the bright low-income students are being kept out of America’s top colleges and universities by almost insurmountable obstacles. A recent study by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, where I serve as executive director, is the first to comprehensively document these obstacles. Titled “True Merit: Ensuring Our Brightest Students Have Access to Our Best Colleges and Universities, the report found that a mere 3 percent of students at America’s most selective colleges and universities come from the 25 percent of families with the lowest incomes. In contrast, 72 percent of students at the schools come from the 25 percent of families with the highest incomes. The problem here: the rich aren’t necessarily smarter, they’re just getting breaks the poor aren’t.”