Currently 39 million adult Americans are without a high school diploma and 40 percent have no education past high school, said Molly Broad during her speech as the twentieth annual Louise McBee lecturer last Friday.
Broad is the first woman to be president of the American Council on Education (ACE) since its founding in 1918. Since taking the position, she has spearheaded an effort to change this shameful statistic.
Broad is working on marketing the General Education Development (GED) exam, a high school equivalency test, in an effort to make it more readily available to Americans who, according to Broad, are in desperate need of this level of education to secure a job.
Broad often referred back to Tony Cavoli's vision that education determines how far you can move up the social and corporate ladders. Broad also notes houw our world is shifting to one that holds greater importance on higher education. In 1967, Broad reports that 70 percent of Americans with only a high school degree were a part of the middle class. According to Broad's research this statistic no longer holds true, and even some with a high school degree are often part of the lower class in America.
An extension of Broad's initial project as ACE president would be to create a "GED with honors," that would deem a person "college ready." This idea proved to be very popular with the crowd full of educators, especially after they viewed Broad's graphs showing the benefits of higher education.
Broad wants people to think of investing in higher education the way they think of investing in a home. According to her research, both increase a person's wealth and are a great asset.
According to her statistics, Broad's comparison rings true. Broad showed a graph that visually represented the strong correlation between education level and income. The median household income for a person with a Bachelor's degree is around $80,000 a year, while someone with a high school diploma makes only around the mid $30,000 mark. Broad expressed concern for the 39 million Americans without a high school diploma who are statistically only making $20,000 a year, which is below the poverty line if this income is supporting a family.
Broad also cited several social benefits of attaining higher education. Those with higher degrees are statistically less likely to be unemployed, and are also less likely to be incarcerated. Additionally, they are more likely to vote, have reduced chances of smoking and generally have better health, and are even more likely to volunteer, said Broad.
It is for all these reasons that Broad believed the higher education system needs to find a better way to serve not only their current students, but nontraditional students as well. Nontraditional students include adults 65 and over, individuals returning from war, displaced workers as well as the large amounts of high school dropouts.
When referring to adults over 65, Broad is speaking more of a continuing education.
"Although they're generally well educated historically speaking, we need to find ways to serve those who still wish to remain active in the workforce past age 65."
Broad also considers people returning from war as a type of nontraditional student that the higher education system especially needs to reach out to. Broad believes educating these individuals is a great way for them to step back into the work force, and even American society.
Broad is confident that she is well on her way to helping serve high school dropouts by getting them "college ready" with her "GED with Honors" program, a project many attendees expressed interest in and talked about after Broad's speech.
Broad's speech also touched on other challenges to the higher education system in America including the global economy, demographics and educational disparities, the cost and revenue structure of higher education, as well as the importance of public goodwill.
Although Broad notes the importance of facing these challenges and adjusting to overcome them, she still believes that students are the most important part of educators' jobs.
Colleges "must be seen as credible, a place of opportunity, a place to teach, a place to mentor, and a place to solve problems," said Broad. "Even with America at a crossroads, it is important for the higher education system to remain true to our values."
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