After you complete high school, you’re often expected to go on to higher education. But here in the city, the state’s top education official says many graduates are struggling to even complete a two-year college program. 

“In New York City, when students graduate from high school, 75 percent of them need to be re-mediated to enter a two-year college program,” said New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch. 

And even six years later, less than a quarter of these students manage to earn their two-year degree, setting them up for failure, she said. 

“So what do they have after six years in a two-year college? They have debt, they have absolutely no capacity to earn a living because the jobs that they would have been qualified to do 10 years ago have disappeared from the economy,” Tisch told MetroFocus Host Rafael Pi Roman.