Roadblocks to US Higher Education Access and Influence on US Long-term Economic Growth

It has attracted attention that, despite having the best university system, US college enrollment rate has been stagnant since 1970 and remained much lower than other developed countries, such as Canada or EU countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of education on economic progress, to explain the inconsistency between increasing college premium and stagnant college enrollment rate, and end up with possible policies. It is counter-intuitive that it is not the daunting US university tuition fee that discourage students from college. Instead, studies have shown that it is early-age education (from age of 3 to 5), living environment and marriage status of parents that determines the high school/college academic performance of a student.