DeLaney comments on Indiana’s declining college-going rate
Recently, the Indiana Commission on Higher Education (CHE) quietly released the updated report of Indiana’s college-going rate to their website. The report shows that for the 2023 cohort of high school seniors, only 51.7% of them went to college, which is down from the poor but steady rate of 53% from 2020-2022. This comes just six-months after new high school degree requirements were approved by the CHE that shifts emphasis to work-based learning.
State Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis), a member of the House Committee on Education, released the following statement:
“The startling drop in our college-going rate yet again can be credited to the lack of two things: money and morale.
“Ball State University professor of economics Michael Hicks reports that Indiana students can no longer receive the financial aid they need to be able to go to in-state institutions thanks to the decrease in state support. While our governor has been taking a victory lap for getting our state universities to freeze tuition, he has failed to guarantee that his move will not decrease financial aid and scholarship opportunities. Any lack of opportunity for tuition support will lead to more Hoosiers not being able to afford college and being forced to choose a different path.
“At the same time, the supermajority has made attacking colleges and universities the centerpiece of their culture war agenda – from policing what can be taught in the classroom, to forcing institutions to eliminate hundreds of degree options, to creating an entirely new high school diploma that emphasizes the path directly into the workforce. Republican leaders have been devaluing the opportunities that our colleges and universities can offer students.
“Trying to bury this report in a website and not send a press release is a telling sign that the Commission on Higher Education knows this does not look good, and does not act to fix it. It simply isn’t important enough to them. They are busy eliminating college courses and creating new tests. This is what the legislature has asked them to do.
“In the past, we had reached a college-going rate of 65% and we set a goal to get it back when it slumped. Now, it doesn’t seem like we care to address the issue. That is a shame for our students, a shame for our economy, and a shame for our state.
"The supermajority has been in power for 20 years and this is their achievement. At some point we have to ask ourselves: is a declining college-going rate not the result they want?"