“As he explained yesterday at the Washington Ideas Forum, shrinking state budgets have indeed made college less affordable and lead to ballooning student debt. But throughout most of our higher education system, the biggest problem isn’t necessarily cost; it’s our shockingly low graduation rates.”
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Our College Crisis: A PowerPoint Presentation by Bill Gates - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic
Are these two separate things? I think what you’ll find is that graduate rates are low in large part due to the high cost of education and the total lack of support most non-traditional (i.e., working, older, with children, low-income) students have in getting their degrees.