Editorial: Solving the college conundrum requires leaders to step up [Video]

One of the most consistent takeaways from the recent Oregonian/OregonLive “College Conundrum” series was how much talent, promise and resilience Oregon’s high school seniors show. From Francisco Jose Gutierrez Jr., in Ontario to Yesenia Collins in Madras, students are overcoming both personal and pandemic-related barriers, rising to the challenge of high school and preparing themselves for life after graduation.

But as reporters Sami Edge and Julia Silverman demonstrated in the series, students are too often forced to navigate that path to the future without much guidance. Many, alarmed by the prospect of college debt and thwarted by complex or broken financial aid processes, are giving up on pursuing higher education, contributing to the 10-point drop in the percentage of Oregonians enrolling in two-year or four-year postsecondary education programs from 2011 to 2021. The declines have been sharpest in communities of color and among rural boys. Such decisions affect not only students’ personal career paths but the prosperity of the state as a whole.

Individual schools …