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Op-Ed: Next Step for Mayor’s Inequality Agenda: Tackle NYC’s College Success Problem

Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2017

Op-Ed: Next Step for Mayor’s Inequality Agenda: Tackle NYC’s College Success Problem

If Mayor de Blasio is serious about making headway on his signature issue of reducing inequality, his administration should now turn its attention to boosting the rate at which New Yorkers earn a college credential.

by Jonathan Bowles & Tom Hilliard

Tags: higher education community colleges low income cuny suny albany

In his first term, Mayor de Blasio took important steps to reduce inequality with bold policies such as universal pre-K and computer science for all. But if the mayor is serious about making headway on his signature issue, his administration should now turn its attention to another important educational reform: boosting the rate at which New Yorkers earn a college credential.

In this New York Daily News op-ed, CUF Executive Director Jonathan Bowles and Senior Fellow for Economic Opportunity Tom Hilliard assert that as Mayor de Blasio embarks on his second term, he has a vital opportunity to tackle New York City's college success problem. 

Read the op-ed here.

This op-ed is a continuation of the Center for an Urban Future's extensive research on higher education in New York, including the groundbreaking study Degrees of Difficulty: Boosting College Success in New York City.   

Photo Credit: Element5 Digital/ Unsplash

This research was made possible by The Clark Foundation.

General operating support for the Center for an Urban Future is provided by the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation. We are also grateful for support from Fisher Brothers for the Center for an Urban Future’s Middle Class Jobs Project.

Center for an Urban Future (CUF) is an independent, nonprofit think tank that generates innovative policies to create jobs, reduce inequality, and help lower income New Yorkers climb into the middle class. For 20 years, CUF has published accessible, data-driven reports on ways to grow and diversify the economy and expand opportunity that are anchored in rigorous research, not preconceived notions about outcome. Our work has been a powerful catalyst for policy change in New York City and serves as an invaluable resource for government officials, community groups, nonprofit practitioners and business leaders as they advocate for and implement policies to address some of New York’s biggest challenges and opportunities.