More Prepared for College, Students Face Fiscal Barriers, Study Finds

Washington

High school students in many states are more academically prepared for college than they were 10 years ago, but they also face greater financial obstacles in trying to acquire a postsecondary degree, asserts a study that examines trends in all 50 states over the past decade.

The report, "Measuring Up 2004," suggests, on the one hand, that changes in elementary and secondary education have resulted in students' taking more rigorous courses in areas such as science and mathematics.

But the same study, conducted by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, also finds that those gains were uneven from state to state. And it concludes that college prices are rising faster than many families' incomes, making education less affordable and posing a serious long-term threat to...