In my dotage I have two young sons. Both are smart. And, I help and drive them. I worry about whether I’ll instill enough in them so that after I’m a goner they’ll be able to handle life’s decisions well. I also worry how well the major financial investment in college will work out.
So I got drawn into a series of blog posts from the American Enterprise Institute about a study listing colleges’ graduation rates, based on US Department of Education gathered data. The discussion has centered on why many rankings don’t make sense. The latest post reveals that colleges are not under any compunction to accurately report data.
For example, “Arkansas Baptist College, which boasts a 100 percent graduation rate in the database, admitted that the school’s data were reported erroneously.” An author of the AEI study comments: “It is worth noting again that these data are congressionally mandated and collected by a major federal agency. Would we tolerate such inaccuracies from the companies who report workplace injury rates to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or the state agencies that administer the food stamp program?”
I don’t think my sons will end up at Arkansas Baptist College. But, before Washington funnels hundreds of millions or many billions of taxpayer dollars into higher education, it does seem reasonable to require greater accountability, of Washington and of colleges.
