RIC Graduation Rate "Immoral"

There's a provocative piece in the Journal today about Rhode Island's College's graduation rate, or better put, lack thereof. According to a survey by Education Trust 4 out of 10 incoming freshmen in 1997 had not graduated by 2003! RIC brass cited three possible reasons:

* Money pressures that prompt many students to drop out or delay their studies. * The high number of students who transfer into RIC, but who cannot be counted in graduation rates. * RIC's part-time and nontraditional students, who take longer than six years to finish their bachelor's degrees.

But even they admit that this does not tell the entire story. According to the study, schools in RIC's category generally graduate approximately 77 percent of incoming freshman within six years. Why should you care? The less educated we are as a state at-large, the more likely our residents will need government assistance to survive. The more assistance we need, the higher taxes we pay. The higher taxes we pay, the less attractive we are to businesses. The less attractive we are to businesses, the more difficult it becomes to create new RI jobs. And on and on! Call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish. However, when a populace is less educated than its peers and highly taxed that's a recipe for unemployment.