Access: Ensuring All Students Are Prepared To Go To College And Succeed

The Information Age is truly the Education Age. That's why President Clinton and I have worked so hard to expand access to college for our young people and for adults who want to go back to school.

Vice President Gore, February 1998

Ever since the colonists established the first formal schools in the 1630s, one basic question has remained: who gets to go? Boys only? Whites only? Rich only? Fit only? Over the decades, the federal government has stepped in many times in the struggle to ensure that every American has access to an excellent education. A turning point for higher education came in 1862, when Congressman Justin Morrill of Vermont sponsored the First Morrill Act¹⁹ to give each state land to support a college. Today, when postsecondary education is a universal expectation, there is no excuse for holding anyone back.

Educational attainment is one of the strongest predictors of financial and professional success, as well as civic involvement. For institutions, increased access makes possible a diversity of cultural, social, and economic backgrounds among the student body. This enhances the academic experience for everyone. Ensuring access to postsecondary education for all Americans continues to be one of the most important issues facing American society today. That is why it is a key mission of the U.S. Department of Education.

The Department and its Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) employ three strategies to promote access to postsecondary education:

1. supporting an extensive and flexible student financial aid program (discussed in the next section of this report);
2. providing all students with the support they need to reach and succeed in higher education; and
3. ensuring that our country has strong, high-quality postsecondary schools to accommodate them.

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