ABSTRACT

The US educational system has been influenced by the Henry Ford mass-production model. The United States exports annually about $6 billion dollars more in higher education than it imports, and more people come to the United States for higher education than go elsewhere. The fundamental proposition seems to be fairly straightforward. Either a nation competes by cutting wages and income or by improving productivity, product quality, and production flexibility. The evidence suggests very strongly that one of the reasons for the decline in black enrollment in colleges and universities is that it is much more difficult for them to finance postsecondary education. In contrast with elementary and secondary schools, US institutions of higher education are world-renown. If access of minorities to educational and health care facilities continues to fall behind the rest of the population, it may produce irreversible damage to American society.