• The need for more minority college enrollment The need for more minority college enrollment The Times, Shreveport, La. — Aug. 8, 2005 Nothing influences a state’s prosperity more than the education of its people. But a respected education board
• The need for more minority college enrollment
The need for more minority college enrollment
The Times, Shreveport, La. — Aug. 8, 2005
Nothing influences a state’s prosperity more than the education of its people. But a respected education board worries that the South’s progress in education “could come to an historically unprecedented halt” unless fast-growing minority groups raise their overall enrollment in colleges and universities.
The latest Fact Book on Higher Education from the Southern Regional Education Board should be required reading for every elected official, indeed every citizen.…
“Population growth,” the report says, “is expected to be the greatest for precisely those racial/ethnic groups who have been the least likely to go to college and who face the largest affordability gaps in paying to attend.”…
But the costs of college are now a bigger challenge for middle and lower-income students while enrollment growth and inflation have eroded funding increases across the region.
It appears that even though Louisiana’s percentage of funding per full-time equivalent student has risen faster than the region, its actual allocation per student is still well below other SREB states. In order to enroll, 88 percent of Louisiana freshmen at four-year colleges and 52 percent at community colleges received financial grants or loans, or both, compared to national figures of 68 and 58 percent, respectively.
