Sue Loughlin
Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE – Just 53% of Indiana high school graduates went to college in 2020, a one-year decline that is described as “alarming” by Chris Lowery, Indiana’s new commissioner for higher education.

On Thursday, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education released data showing that the college-going rate of the first high school cohort impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic – the class of 2020 – declined 6 percentage points from the prior year.

Since 2015, the college-going rate has declined by 12 percentage points.

While the national trend also shows a decline, “Indiana’s decline is steeper,” according to the Commission’s 2022 College Readiness Report. Nationally, the college-going rate has declined 6 percentage points since 2015.

College is defined as the full range of credentials beyond high school, from a one-year credential and up, according to the report.

“In Indiana, we are getting after it,” Lowery said during a commission work session conducted at Indiana State University Thursday.

Lowery became Indiana’s seventh higher education commissioner in April.

The decline in Indiana’s college-going rate in 2020-21 equates to about 4,000 fewer high school graduates going to college than the year before.

An incremental decline had been occurring since 2015, but accelerated during the pandemic.

“It is clear to us it’s an all-hands effort that will be required to address this,” Lowery said. That response will involve K-12 education, government, employers, non-profits including faith-based groups and others. It will involve partnerships, policies and programming.

Part of it is conveying the value of higher education, he said. It also involves looking beyond the traditional approaches to education for both youth and adult learners.

Commission chairman Mike Alley described the information as sobering.

“Now indeed is the time for us to not sit back and let things happen, but rather to be proactive,” he said.

While the overall decline in the Hoosier college-going rate impacted every student demographic, some student groups experienced greater effects from the pandemic, and equity gaps have increased.

Black students saw the largest decline in college-going rates before and during the pandemic compared to all other races and ethnicities (7 percentage point decrease), followed closely by Hispanic and Latino students at 6-percentage-point decline).

Low-income students also saw a greater decrease in college-going rates compared to their higher-income peers (6 percentage point and 4 percentage point declines, respectively).

“Another concerning gap is the difference in the college-going rates of women and men. This is the first time in recent history the male college-going rate has dropped to below half (46%),” according to a commission news release.

In contrast, the college going rate for women in 2020 was 61 percent.

Recommendations

The commission also provided recommendations as part of its data report.

Among them, it recommends increasing funding for the Frank O’Bannon Grant Program, which annually helps more than 30,000 Hoosier undergraduates afford college. It is Indiana’s primary need-based financial aid program.

Funding amounts for the grant were cut significantly during the “great recession” of 2008-09, and amounts have not yet recovered.

The commission calls for returning the grant amounts to the inflation-adjusted pre-great recession levels, which would be a 35% increase.

The commission, during an afternoon business meeting, approved those recommendations Thursday, which now will be forwarded to the State Budget Committee for approval later this month.

The changes, if approved, “are really significant,” Lowery said. There will be students who will be able to go to college tuition free.

The maximum awards would be $12,400 for private institutions and $6,200 for public institutions.

It’s one step to help increase college-going numbers, said Josh Garrison, associate commissioner for legislation and program implementation.

“It’s not a silver bullet, but it is a large — and in my opinion historic step we are taking — with the Frank O’Bannon grant,” Garrison said.

Those dollar amounts can be increased yet remain within the current state appropriation, he said.

Other recommendations include:

• Automatically enroll all eligible students into the 21st Century Scholars Program. Currently, fewer than half of eligible students enroll in the program, despite its success at ensuring students access and are prepared for college. Eighty-one percent of Scholars go to college.
• Dramatically increase the number of students earning the Indiana College Core (a 30-credit-hour block of general education credit that transfers among Indiana’s public institutions).
• Require all high school seniors file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
• Consider revising the state’s outcomes-based funding formula to build on recent successes.
• Communicate the value of higher education, including Indiana’s generous need-based financial aid (the state provides up to $385 million annually, making it first in the Midwest and fifth in the nation in providing need-based financial aid).

According to the College Readiness Report, the COVID-19 pandemic “added fuel to a national fire that was already burning — one of doubt about the value of higher education, particularly considering the cost (even when offset by generous financial aid Indiana provides).”

This story is being published with permission from Hoosier State Press Association.