Key Points
- Even among those who make it to college, less than 75 percent persist beyond the first year. Meanwhile, only 11 percent of business leaders strongly agree that college graduates have the skills employers need.
- Hybrid college could be a catalyst to rethink education. Hybrid college combines the flexibility of an online degree with in-person support and community building.
- Hybrid colleges could considerably increase persistence and graduation rates while decreasing student debt.
Introduction
The American dream—the belief that anyone is capable of upward mobility and a better life than the one in which they were born—is in jeopardy. According to Harvard economist Raj Chetty, American families are experiencing reduced upward mobility across generations. As Gareth Cook wrote in the Atlantic:
In one early study, [Chetty] showed that children born in 1940 had a 90 percent chance of earning more than their parents, but for children born four decades later, that chance had fallen to 50 percent, a toss of a coin.1
Today, the American dream is at risk, and education is the key to reversing the trajectory of upward mobility, imparting what it means to be a good citizen, and making the American dream a dream to, once again, be grasped.
To propel society toward a better future for all, we must refocus on the following.