Over 1 Million HS Grads Skipped College in 2020. Only a Tiny Fraction Re-Enrolled in 2021
Asher Lehrer-Small
December 8, 2021
The first summer of the pandemic brought disappointing news to school counselor Marianne Matt.
Many of the seniors who she had supported through the spring college admission process at Capital High in Madison, Wisconsin — where about three-quarters of students are Black or Hispanic, and 4 in 5 qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — opted to abandon their post-secondary plans for fall. Even students who had won scholarships, she learned, decided not to enroll.
“Survival became the key,” Matt told The 74, explaining that, instead of college, many students picked up jobs to help their families make ends meet. “They became … the breadwinning part of the family.”
