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During the recession, one of the states in America that showed a decline in the college degree holder percentage between the age 25 and 64 was Washington, according to a latest government report.

This data was released by the Department of Education recently, a day before Arne Duncan; our Education Secretary was scheduled to speak at a meeting convened by the National Governors Association. The goal of this meeting was to discuss about how to raise college attainment in our country.

As compared to the year 2009, the year 2010 saw a forty per cent decrease in the number of college graduates in this age group. According to a data released by the census, between the years 2009 and 2010, there was an increase in percentage of post-secondary degree holders in this age group.

Our President’s aim is to increase the per cent of Americans with college degrees to 60 by this decade. Washington DC is the only place in our country to have achieved this. Duncan quoted the President and said that it will not take long for other countries to out-compete us.

The reason for low degree rates, according to Duncan is the double digit rise in tuition and higher education funding cuts in forty states. In spite of goals set by the state to enhance college degrees and attendance during the recession, Washington State experienced both.

A steady increase in tuition over the last decade has been balancing the declining state funds for higher education. Percentage of cost paid by the government to educate a student a decade ago was eight per cent at the four-year universities or colleges in Washington. Today, the state pays just thirty per cent of the amount and the balance money is covered by tuition.

New Washington Student Achievement Council’s executive director Don Bennett says that the drop in Washington State college attainment is not only due to tuition increases and budget cuts. He says that college educated new employees are not coming into the states and hiring has slowed down to a great extent due to the economic downturn.

Washington is still among the top three of the nation’s states that lead in college attainment in spite of the drop in numbers. The Higher Education Coordinating Board charted out a strategic higher education plan for the state in 2008 and the state has been diligently following the same ever since.

This plan focused on improving rates of graduation, keeping up with financial aid demand and increasing public college capacity. Ways by which budget cuts can impact degree attainment and college enrolment is showed by the Washington Student Achievement Council overseen 2012 plan update.

The update proposes admission of more number of students by colleges, making graduation classes easier for students and making colleges less expensive. A task has been laid out by the Legislature for the achievement council to raise the number of college degree attainment. Bennett said that people of all age groups have to figure it out and do something about this.