Friday, October 30, 2009
An August, Gov. Mark Parkinson urged state universities in Kansas to pursue a greater degree of excellence. What has come out of that speech and is now the topic of discussion is the idea of raising admission standards at state universities, especially the University of Kansas.
Although the standards don’t directly affect current students — we’re already in, after all — raising admission standards could boost the university’s prestige over time, something that’s beneficial to students past, present and future.
Although this was my first instinct, an experience I had over fall break caused me to wrestle with whether raising standards is actually the right thing to do.
Like my fellow columnist Tyler Holmes, whose article on education ran Oct. 22, I also visited my high school during fall break. I returned to speak with seniors about their opinions of possible changes to admission standards.
I spoke with three American government classes — two standard classes and one Advanced Placement class — and while there were supporters and opponents in all classes, an interesting contrast emerged afterward when I was comparing the classes’ opinions. A majority of AP students supported raising the admission standard, while students in regular classes largely opposed the idea.
This isn’t very surprising. After all, it’s only logical to expect that students in regular classes would be more likely to be challenged by a raise in the standards. But multiple students in the regular classes also raised the issue of affordability, theorizing that a more admission restrictive university would have less students, generate less money and this would result in an increase in the cost to attend.
Regardless of whether that claim holds any merit, it suggests an anxiety over whether higher standards would hurt students from lower income backgrounds. It’s an anxiety that shouldn’t be ignored. Yes, standards should be raised, but the Board of Regents should be extra careful not to limit the opportunities of potential students whose income status may have contributed to poor work in high school, yet they still possess the ability to do well in college.
A good compromise would be to only raise the standards at the University of Kansas while keeping other schools as they are. If the Regents elect to take a harder line and raise standards at all universities, the legislature should pursue steps to strengthen the various community colleges around the state.
Kansas lawmakers must send the message that any standards change is not meant to cut off access to higher education. While the fact that 20 percent of freshman at the University drop out in their first semester is unacceptable, so is the idea that a student’s aspirations of higher education should end just because he or she fell one point short of the necessary ACT score.
If state officials and the Regents can send that message, then raising the standards should be supported.
On a personal note: Many thanks to McPherson High School teacher Rick Reed for allowing me into his classes.
— Shorman is a McPherson sophomore in journalism.
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