by
Joseph Garcia
President
Colorado State University-Pueblo
Colorado's Future Depends on an Educated Hispanic Workforce.
Colorado's system of higher education does many things well and I am proud to be associated with it, but there are a number of areas in which we know we fall short and must improve if we are to provide all of our young people with opportunity. Without significant change, we risk not only the personal growth that comes to each individual through education, but also the economic growth and sustainability of this great state. We face stiff competition for new jobs from other states and other nations that are investing more and achieving better results and we cannot compete without a well educated workforce.
Readers of this column are probably already aware of the "Colorado Paradox." That term refers to the puzzling fact that, while we are in the very top tier of states as measured by the percentage of our adult population with a college degree, we are in the bottom tier in terms of sending our own high school graduates on to college. Colorado is also at or near last place in terms of how much state money per capita we invest in higher education, but this column is not just another university administrator's plea for more money. Rather, I want to focus on another failing of our higher education system that receives too little attention and that is our lack of success in educating the fastest growing segment of our college aged population-Hispanic students.
Every state shows some gap between the college degree attainment of "white" citizens and that state's next largest ethnic group. The gap is smallest in Hawaii at just over one percent but largest right here in Colorado at almost 36 percent. No other state surpasses us in the degree to which there is inequity in our success in educating our largest minority group. We are worse than California, Alabama, Mississippi, New York and all others. Among Colorado's white and Asian adults, 29 percent have at least a bachelor's degree. Among Black Coloradans, the number exceeds 19 percent. By comparison, only 8.2 percent of Colorado's Hispanics have a bachelor's degree. Those facts do not bode well for our future as a state.
The youngest and fastest growing segment of our population is of Hispanic origin. If they are the workforce of tomorrow, they must be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow and those jobs increasingly will require at least some college. Therefore, we need to figure out how to prepare them for college, enroll them in college, and make sure they successfully graduate from college. This will require the collective efforts of families, the K-12 system, community and state colleges, universities, social service agencies, private business, and state and local governments. Success will help to grow and sustain all of those groups and more. Failure is not an option.
Why aren't more Hispanics going to college, and why isn't this a problem for that community to solve on its own? Many people believe, incorrectly, that Hispanics simply do not value education. That wasn't my experience growing up, and I know it was not the experience of many Hispanic kids. Most polls conducted in Colorado and elsewhere suggest that is not a question of valuing education, but of knowing how to access it. When Hispanic parents are asked whether higher education is critical to their children's long term success, they answer in the affirmative at a rate higher than all other groups, including non-Hispanic whites. So, if they know it is important, why aren't they enrolling at higher rates and what should universities do about it?
First, we know that educational success breeds more success. One is much more likely to attend college if one's parents did. Second, higher education participation is directly correlated to family income, and even home ownership. To the degree that the Hispanic population lags in those areas, and it does, it will lag in college participation. Language barriers and success in completing high school are also issues, as is enrollment in college preparatory courses in high school. A high school diploma alone is not adequate preparation for college success. Students must pursue a rigorous, college preparatory curriculum or else be prepared for placement into remedial level courses in college that will cost them unnecessary time and money.
Those issues illustrate why this problem cannot be laid solely at the feet of higher education institutions, although we certainly share the blame. Once enrolled in higher education, Latinos have lower retention and graduation rates (although some institutions have done admirable jobs of closing those gaps) and they are less likely to receive financial aid or take out loans to finance their education. Without adequate financial assistance, Latino students are more likely to attend school part time, and to work, often in full-time jobs. Again, those factors increase the likelihood that the student won't earn a degree.
CSU-Pueblo is designated as an HSI-a Hispanic Serving Institution-and an important part of our mission is to meet the educational needs of the Hispanic community. We are designated as an HSI because 25 percent or more of our student population is of Hispanic origin, but that designation does not mean we are not here to serve all others. Indeed, almost 75 percent of our students are not of Hispanic origin. But, if one looks at the school populations in southern Colorado, the Hispanic student population is closer to 50 percent and growing so we cannot claim to meet the needs of our community if our Hispanic student population is not increasing as well. That is no different at CSU-Pueblo than it is at all the other Colorado schools, where the Hispanic populations may be much smaller or, in some cases, notably larger. In every community the numbers and the needs are growing. What other business could fail to equitably serve its entire customer base and still expect to succeed?
With the support of families, K-12 educators, community colleges, state colleges, and universities, we can begin to move this state from its unenviable position as the most inequitable higher education system in the nation. To do so, our focus needs to move from telling our Latino families and students why higher education is important to explaining how to access it. Only by increasing access to higher education opportunities to all of our young people will Colorado remain the great state that we want it to be.
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Joseph Garcia was appointed president of Colorado State University-Pueblo in July 2006 after serving as president of Pikes Peak Community College for more than five years. Prior to joining PPCC, he was government affairs manager for the Colorado Springs Utilities and previously had been appointed by the White House as the secretary's representative for the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Garcia was the first Hispanic partner in the Colorado Springs law firm of Holme Roberts & Owen. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Colorado-Boulder. In 1994, he returned to Harvard to attend the Program for State and Local Executives at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
