WASHINGTON ― Dr. Ivory Toldson, executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs, said that he is supportive of recommendations from Beyond the Box, a new report from the Education Department that urges colleges to reconsider how they ask applicants about their criminal records.
An estimated 70 million Americans have an arrest or conviction in their past, and the report found that questions about criminal records early on in the college application process may have a chilling effect on some applicants.
Toldson was speaking at “Toward a Policy and Legislative Agenda to Address the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” a conference sponsored by the Ronald W. Walters Leadership and Public Policy Center at Howard University, along with other leaders from the HBCU community Thursday. The conference centered around the disproportionate toll that overly punitive school discipline policies take on minority youth, and what actions might be taken to counteract these issues.
“I fully support any effort, whether it be in higher education, or in the workforce, where we reduce the stigma that’s associated with someone coming out with a criminal record,” Toldson said during a morning panel.
While the Beyond the Box initiative is relevant to anyone with a criminal history, it has particular implications for the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects minority youth and draws them into the criminal justice system before they can begin their adult lives.
The report points to data from the 2011-2012 Civil Rights Data Collection, maintained by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which shows that Black students are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than White students.
“While black students represent 16 percent of student enrollment, they represent 27 percent of students referred to law enforcement and 31 percent of students subjected to a school-related arrest,” the report says.
