Indicators of Higher Education Equity In the United States: 2024 50-Year Historical Trend Report. The Paradox of U.S. Higher Education: Confronting Realities, Exploring Solutions

The theme of the Equity Indicators for 2024 is confronting the realities and exploring feasible solutions related to the paradoxical and unequal higher education system. As the figure shows, higher education in the United States is increasingly the major agent of overcoming poverty and of attaining upward mobility toward the so-called "American Dream." At the same time, the higher education system functions to sort and stratify society, leading to increased geo-political divides and the legitimization of large differences in wages and salaries, such that many noncollege jobs increasingly do not pay a living wage. The higher education system functions, paradoxically, as a source for innovation and problem solving at the same time it serves as a primary force to maintain the status quo. Further, higher education often functions to legitimize economic practices that increasingly pose an existential threat to environmental sustainability. This sober look at the historical trends in this Equity Indicators report suggests that overcoming these paradoxes is a major challenge.