# Dean Peter Henry on the importance of equal access to education in America

1 Faculty News August 28, 2013 ![](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_032728.jpg?itok=gyX8dCgC)>

Excerpt from [NPR](http://www.thetakeaway.org/2013/aug/28/roundtable-unmet-goals-march-washington-and-future-civil-rights-movement/) -- "Americans are big believers in equal access to opportunity and letting outcomes fall where they may if there's a level playing field. And right now there isn't a level playing field and I think the statistic that captures it best is the fact that if you're born in the United States in the top 25% of the income distribution, you have an 85% chance of going to college. If you're born in the bottom 25% of the income distribution, you have an 8% chance of going to college. That is not equal access to opportunity. In the private sector, if we want to be a country that continues to grow, then we've got to take joint responsibility and the private sector ought to say, 'Gee, we've got a role in actually making higher education more accessible to the masses in order to level the playing field, because, again, the key equalizer is education. That's what transforms people's lives."

[Listen here](http://www.thetakeaway.org/2013/aug/28/roundtable-unmet-goals-march-washington-and-future-civil-rights-movement/)