State and federal governments spent more than $9 billion dollars on college students who left school before beginning their sophomore year, according to a new report.
The report issued by the American Institute for Research looked at how much state and federal governments spent from 2003 to 2008 on students who did not return for their second year of school at colleges and universities.
Author of the report Mark Schneider said the study shows taxpayers are spending a lot of money on students to get a degree and a lot of that money is wasted.
In Wisconsin, the state and federal government spent $140.9 million on students who left school before the start of their second year, according to the report.
Schneider said he wants the government to start funding schools based on how well they are keeping and graduating their students, adding they do not have to focus on colleges like Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin, but on smaller regional schools where the majority of these students attend.
According to the report only 70 percent of college students at four-year universities nationwide will return to their school the following year.
The retention rate for freshman at the University of Wisconsin in 2008 was 93.8 percent, according to a statement from the UW System.
John Wiley, former UW chancellor and interim director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, said not enough students are finishing school across the country.
“The nationwide graduation rate is scandalous,” Wiley added.
Wiley said colleges do not do a good enough job of screening applicants and many students are just not ready to be at a four-year college.
Wiley added because UW has such a thorough admissions process, he could predict 85 percent of new students here will reach graduation.
“We figure it’s our responsibility to say whether or not you have what it takes to succeed here and if we admit you then it’s also our responsibility to help you once you’re here,” Wiley said.
The report does not take into account students who transferred from their original school and did not look at community colleges, Schneider said.
