Latino Access to Higher Education in the State of Washington
By Kevin McNellis
Executive Summary
Latino Access to Higher Education in the State of Washington
Kevin McNellis, Whitman College
Executive Summary, November 27, 2006
“I
truly believe that without the Educational Talent Search program I
would have not gone to college. At the time my family didn’t have the
money to get me to college, and we didn’t even know what college really
was. ETS educated me on how I could go to college and I was given
hope.” Jose, a current Latino college student and Educational Talent
Search Alumnus.
Topic: Increasingly, a college education is
becoming a necessary requirement in achieving an adequate standard of
living in a globalized and technology-based economy. Latinos, however,
are the most underrepresented minority group at college campuses across
the state. In order to understand this disparity my research focused
specifically on the financial barriers facing Latino college students
in Washington. I asked the following questions: what economic factors
are contributing to Latinos enrolling and gradating at lower rates than
their peers? What financial aid policies and economic trends are
contributing to this disparity? Finally, what are the most feasible
policy remedies available for achieving equity in education?
Methods:
The overall academic framework I used to analyze the achievement gap
between Latino students and their peers was Critical Race Theory
(CRT). In an educational context, CRT specifically looks at the
intersection of race and property, both in terms of cultural and
economic capital that privilege certain racial and ethnic groups over
others. Latinos face deficits in both areas, because they are more
likely to come from low-income households where neither parent attended
college. This fact led me to study programs that are aimed at
overcoming these hurdles. I specifically focused on Educational Talent
Search at Walla Walla Community College, which is helping low-income
Latino students finance their college educations.
Findings:
•
Tuition at four-year universities within Washington State has risen at
twice the rate of average family income for the last decade, while
state spending on higher education has fallen by over 30%.
• On
average, Washington fails to meet the demonstrated financial need of
students earning less than $30,000 dollars a year, while exceeding the
demonstrated need of students whose families earn more than $50,000
dollars.
• Educational Talent Search more than doubles college attendance rates of low-income students.
Recommendations:
• Utilize programs like Educational Talent Search to improve enrollment rates of Latino students in the short term.
•
Concurrently, fund a commission for studying the specific problems of
access to higher education for Latinos in order to create new and
effective policy initiatives.
• In the long term, increase and
maintain the budgets of Washington’s entire higher education system in
order to accommodate the ever-increasing number of new college
students, the majority of which are Latino.
Community Partner: Andrew Dankel-Iba?n?ez, Director of Educational Talent Search at Walla Walla Community College.
