President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama recently joined college presidents and other education leaders from around the nation at the second White House College Opportunity Day of Action, where organizations announced more than 600 new actions to help students prepare for and graduate from college.
The White House also released a report summarizing the progress of participants in the first College Opportunity Day of Action, held in January
Participants were challenged to commit to a new action in one of four areas: building networks of colleges focused on promoting completion, creating K-16 partnerships around college readiness, investing in high school counselors as part of the first lady’s Reach Higher initiative and increasing the number of college graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, referred to collectively as STEM.
Expanding opportunity for more students to enroll and succeed in college, especially low-income and underrepresented students, is vital to building a strong economy and a strong middle class. Obama believes that the United States should lead the world in college attainment.
This second summit focused on building sustainable collaborations in communities with strong K-12 and higher education partnerships to encourage college enrollment, and supporting colleges to work together to dramatically improve persistence and increase college completion, especially for first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students.
One of the college presidents in attendance was Vinton Thompson, president of the Metropolitan College of New York. The independent, nonprofit school specializes in non-traditional students who want to obtain college degrees up to the master’s level.
With 1,050 students, MCNY is located in Manhattan, with a Bronx location currently under construction. MCNY is also one of the city’s affordable higher education options.
“I am honored that he, the first lady and Vice President Joe Biden have invited me to participate in their latest education summit to celebrate continued efforts to expand college access for low-income and disadvantaged students,” Thompson said. “A vast majority of students we have are working adults, and the average age of our students is 32.”
More than 80 percent of students at MCNY receive Pell Grants, which help college students with tuition costs.
“If you look at college attainment, people who come from the low economic backgrounds, only 1 in 10 are getting a degree,” Thompson said.
Obama recently increased the amount of Pell Grant awards by $1,000 a year, created the new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth up to $10,000 over four years of college and capped student loan payments at 10 percent of monthly income.
In the coming years, Obama wants to increase the number of college-ready graduates, improve access to highly trained counselors and strengthen STEM education.
Obama also announced new steps on how his administration is helping to support these actions, including $10 million to help promote college completion and a $30 million AmeriCorps program that will improve low-income students’ access to college.
More than 110 individual colleges, universities and nonprofit and philanthropic organizations are making new commitments to increase STEM degree access, preparation and completion for students from low-income and underserved backgrounds, women and minorities underrepresented in STEM fields.
The Department of Education also committed to helping states receive and share data on Free Application for Federal Student Aid form completion so that states and school districts can better identify which students have completed aid forms and target efforts to increase completion, modeled on efforts in Chicago, San Antonio and Detroit that raised FAFSA completion rates by more than 30 percent in some cases.
