WASHINGTON – Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Monday he wants to use his department’s funding war chest to cut drop-out rates and boost college enrollment for Hispanic Americans – a noble approach, educators said, but one that needs policy muscle if it hopes to erase long-entrenched achievement gaps.
The push for scholastic equality comes as President Barack Obama tries to rework education so that the country leads the world in college graduates by 2020, as Duncan reiterated at a gathering of Hispanic college administrators. The strategy relies on revamping financial aid and high school curriculums, along with a touch of social engineering.
“The absolute challenge we have is one of low expectations,” Duncan said. “We have more resources than the department has ever had. We’re going to try to put our money where our mouth is.”
Duncan’s office has indeed been blessed with more dollars – and more influence – than any education chief’s in U.S. history. But the question remains how to translate political might into elixirs for education ills.
As Hispanics have started to close the gap in freshman-year enrollment, they’ve stalled in graduation rates, according to a study released last month by the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, a right-leaning think tank. On average, 51 percent of Latino undergraduates earn a degree in six years or less, compared to 59 percent of white students, the study found.
If that’s to change, the Education Department and its state counterparts need to link funds for Hispanic serving institutions, a federal designation, to graduation totals rather than enrollment numbers, said Andrew P. Kelly, a report coauthor.
“Let’s reward the top performers,” Kelly said. “Do you check to make sure the projects you’re funding are proving effective, or do we funnel money into (college accessibility), which is only a piece of the puzzle?”
Duncan said he agreed, at least in principal (“Access is critical, but at the end of the day it’s about completion.”) But when asked if he’d support such a funding overhaul, the secretary responded, “Let me get back to you on that.”
The problems facing Hispanic undergraduates are numerous. They’re more likely at a financial disadvantage, have less access to school information and often come from a family that has gotten along just fine without college, according to those at this week’s Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities conference. More importantly, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that a quarter of the county’s children younger than 5 are Hispanic, making Obama’s goal of a nation of graduates near impossible without their participation.
Some educators said schools with large Hispanic populations need more Latino teachers. Cultural bridges would create a de facto mentorship, supporters said, in turn stemming drop-out rates. It’s an idea Duncan supports.
“We have to be creative in challenging a culture in the community that college isn’t the right way to go,” he said. “We understand those students’ needs, but we understand the long-term price in making those decisions.”
Others said that the solution ultimately lies in large-scale immigration reform, a controversial issue usually absent from legislative calendars in an election year. Proponents have tried to pass a measure since 2007 that would allow some undocumented students to obtain permanent residency. The latest incarnation has sat in the Senate Judiciary Committee since March of last year.
“They definitely are for it, but the question is if they’re going to put all of their weight behind it,” said Monte Perez, president of Riverside Community College District in Moreno Valle, Calif. “We need to move on it now. We’re losing talent now.”
The Medill News Service is a Washington program of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Yadron, a graduate student in journalism from Chicago, covers education.