According to a recently released study, Alaska has the lowest percentage in the country of young adults involved in post-secondary education. What’s more, many who do plan to go to college will attend out-of-state schools.
Juneau-Douglas High School ninth-grader Caitlin Goettler, 15, is clear about her plans — she wants to go to college and become a doctor specializing in sports medicine. Asked where she wants to go to school, her resolve is just as clear — she wants to go out of state.
“There are not many opportunities here,” she said.
Other Juneau students expressed similar opinions about wanting to leave the state to go to college, even though the average cost of an education at the University of Alaska is $10,424, low when compared to other states.
Some leave. Others don’t pursue further education. According to the study, 28 percent of Alaska’s young people ages 18 to 24 are attending or have attended any type of post-secondary school. The state ranks among the bottom three states for the percentage of ninth-graders who will finish high school in four years and attend college.
The “Quality Counts 2007” study was funded by The Pew Center on the States and conducted by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, based in southern Maryland.
Sterling Lloyd, research associate at the center, said the numbers include technical education, associates’ degrees and community college.
“Generally, the post-secondary rates are directly related to a state’s ability to compete economically,” Lloyd said.
Dale Staley, assistant principal for JDHS, disagreed with the findings, saying more than 50 percent of JDHS graduates go to college. With the possible exception of some rural schools, this is the same number more or less across the state, Staley said.
Staley agreed one explanation for the disparity in the numbers could be a large portion of Alaska high school students leaving the state to go to college. Another reason could be the 63 percent graduation rate in the state, almost 10 percent lower that the national average, according to the study.
Kate Ripley, spokesperson for UA, said the study does ring true.
Ripley said about half of Alaska high school graduates who go to college leave the state. This is despite efforts to lure high-performing in-state students into the UA system with scholarships, and money requested to help students who struggle academically.
Will Morris is a reporter for the Juneau Empire.
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