Dive Brief:
- For students who live in “education deserts,” the best information about how and where to apply to college doesn’t help them avoid the only open-access institution close to home.
- Brookings reports “college knowledge” efforts focus on making students more informed consumers, but research shows many students are place-bound, and 79% of community college students and 53% of public four-year college students enroll in schools within 20 miles of their home.
- Policymakers might consider the impact of place on student choice, working to improve the capacity of colleges in education deserts so they can better serve local students, perhaps like Title I funding offers additional money to K-12 schools with large populations of students in poverty to improve equity.
Dive Insight:
Researchers found education deserts in all 50 states, defining them as commuting zones or metropolitan statistical areas where only one open-access public institution offers a college opportunity for local students. In these areas, there may be more selective institutions or for-profit colleges expanding choice, but selective institutions are not open to all students, and programs at for-profit colleges are often more expensive.
While online education is discussed as a solution for students looking for remote access to higher-quality educational offerings, it still presents a challenge. Many students do not have access to the infrastructure that makes online education possible, including broadband internet.