#and bc idk nearly as much about my granddad's family

[kitebird-hockey]

my youngest cousin is starting a four-year bachelor's degree program in the fall, and it got me thinking.

at risk of doxxing myself by providing personal detail, my cousin's going to be starting at South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD. this is particularly notable to my family because SDSU was the first university anyone in my family attended: my bio-grandfather attended for several semesters, for free, on the GI bill. he did not graduate; i don't know if he wanted to and was unable to or chose not to.

that grandfather is my only bio*-grandparent who attended any college. 1/4.

in my parents' generation, three of six of my parents + bio-aunts and -uncles attended college and graduated. one of them has another advanced degree on top of that. 3/6.

in my generation, six of eight of my bio-siblings and -cousins have enrolled in a four-year bachelors degree program; of the two who haven't, one intends to (wants to go to college, but only applied to one college and didn't get in so that's currently a work in progress). many of us have graduated; some of us are still working on our degrees. I'll count these experiences as 7/8.

a quick look at census data reflects this anecdotal experience. I looked at Table 6 from this census bureau page and found that in 1960, around when my bio-granddad was attending college, 7.7% of USAmerican adults over age 25 had a bachelor's degree or higher. now, that number is about 24% (also from the census bureau).

how is this increased demand for a college education being met? it seems to me like it isn't. where our bio-grandad could walk into SDSU circa 1960 and sign up for classes as he wished, for free, my cousin had to apply for a spot and is expected to pay ~$10,000/year in tuition.

my cousin graduated from public high school in Brookings. some of his classmates who graduated high school alongside him applied to SDSU and were not accepted. there is not another accredited college in Brookings, SD. this means those students successfully graduated public high school and yet cannot attend college locally. luckily, since they live relatively near other population centers, they would only have to drive an hour to the next-closest accredited college. in other parts of SD, the drive would be much longer.

(the accessibility of education is, of course, exacerbated by other issues in USAmerican society. Only three of nine reservations in South Dakota have an accredited tribal college funded by the federal government.**)

tl;dr if people want to go to university they should be able to do so locally and for free. public education is good. and distinct from job or technical training, which is also good, but different.

my new USAmerican Thing To Be Annoying About is that i believe four-year bachelors programs (distinct from job or technical training!) should be free at public colleges that are as accessible as possible to everyone in the united states. and we should create more public universities to make this happen.