California Producing Too Few Latino College Grads

Broken practices and unproductive policies at California public colleges and universities pose serious enough barriers to Latinos such that the lack of Latino student success potentially jeopardizes the state’s future economy, says a new report from the Campaign for College Opportunity organization.

In “The State of Higher Education in California — Latino Report,” the report’s authors explore how California’s 15 million Latinos, the state’s largest racial/ethnic population bloc, are performing in the public college and university systems. Since 2005, the California-based advocacy and research organization has published higher education and workforce studies, including higher education status reports on Latinos and African-Americans.

The report cites a dysfunctional college remedial education system, admissions policies that ban the consideration of race/ethnicity, state disinvestment in higher education and the absence of a statewide plan for higher education as key factors contributing to low college degree attainment rates by Latinos.

“When one in two children under the age of 18 in California is Latino, one conclusion is clear: the future of our economy and the state will rise or fall on the educational success of Latinos. To secure the economic future of California we need to significantly increase the number of Latino students who are prepared for enroll in and graduate from college,” the report states.

With California facing a shortage of 2.3 million college-educated workers over the next decade, it’s been evident for some time that state leaders should enact policy reform and new practices that help increase the number of Latino students who enroll in and graduate from college, said Michele Siqueiros, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity.

“The reality is that this isn’t just a social justice issue, or [isn’t] something that’s good just for Latinos. [It means] that all of us who live in California who want to ensure that we remain a strong economic force both nationally and globally know that we can’t get there if 40 percent of our population doesn’t have the access to a good education,” Siqueiros told Diverse.

“The Campaign for College Opportunity’s new report on Latinos in higher education is an alarming reminder that when we do not focus on race/ethnicity in our public policies and practices, equity gaps in education persist,” Ryan Smith, executive director of The Education Trust-West organization, said in a statement.