A new report makes a convincing argument for why we need free higher education in this country. It compares the cost of college—which has skyrocketed—with the average wage for graduates since 1980, which has completely flatlined. The most stunning thing is these numbers don’t change according to how smart you are. 

“The evidence of our failure to help all youth make the long journey from early childhood to adult economic independence is plain. In the trajectory from kindergarten to a good job, the most talented disadvantaged youth do not fare nearly as well as the least talented advantaged youth,” reads the report. “It is far better to be born rich and white than smart and poor in America.”

The cost of college has increased by 169% in the past 40 years, while wages for young grads have only increased by 19%, according to data from the U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and National Center for Education Statistics. 

“Postsecondary education policy has failed to keep higher education affordable even as formal education beyond high school has become more essential,” reads the report. “Today, two out of three jobs require postsecondary education and training, while three out of four jobs in the 1970s required a high school diploma or less. Yet while young people today need more education than ever to compete in the labor market, a college education is more expensive than in the past.”

Looking at students’ grades in 2019, a Georgetown University report entitled “If Not Now, When? The Urgent Need for an All-One-System Approach to Youth Policy,” found that poor kindergarten students with good test scores were less likely to finish high school, graduate from college, or earn a high salary compared to wealthy peers with lower grades/test scores. 

“When we track student test scores beginning in kindergarten, we find that children from families in the top quartile of family socioeconomic status (SES) who have low test scores have a 71% chance of being in the top half of socioeconomic status by their late 20s,” they write in 2021. “However, children from families in the bottom SES quartile but with top test scores have only a 31% chance of being in the top half of SES by their late 20s, and the numbers are even worse for talented children from low-income racial and ethnic minority households.”

The report makes the case that the educational system in the U.S. has failed its students and recommends President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act begin putting the right steps into place to change that by investing in early education, offering a culturally responsive curriculum, work-based learning, free college for those who need it, and employment and career counseling. 

“We haven’t connected the dots from early childhood, through K –12 and postsecondary education, to careers,” Anthony P. Carnevale, lead author and director of the Center on Education and the Workforce, said in a statement. “We need an all-one-system approach that facilitates smooth transitions on the pathway from youth dependence to adult independence.”