Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Achievement Gap
Maryland higher education leaving poor, minorities behind
Posted by Ron Cassie on Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 4:00 AM
The state’s higher education system is failing to move poor, black, and Latino residents toward college degrees, according to a recent University of Pennsylvania Institute for Higher Education study.
Only 33 percent of blacks and 20 percent of Hispanics in Maryland between the ages of 25 and 34 hold at least an associate’s degree, compared to 51 percent of white Marylanders. Meanwhile, degree attainment among Latinos, has been falling, not rising.
In Baltimore City, slightly less than 30 percent of all adults hold at least an associate's degree.
Overall, however, Maryland scores well in terms of college degree attainment, ranking fourth among the states in the percentage (44 percent) of adults who have earned at least an associate degree.
Released last week, the study, “Much Accomplished, Much at Stake: Performance and Policy in Maryland Higher Education,” noted that Maryland has set a goal of increasing the percentage of the adults holding at least an associate’s degree to 55 percent by 2025. But University of Pennsylvania researchers Laura Perna and Joni Finney contend “that will not happen unless the state can reduce its longstanding inequities.”
By 2018, some projections estimate that 66 percent of all jobs in Maryland will require at least some postsecondary education or training, according to the Institute for Research for Higher Education’s website.
The study also noted that although Maryland has tried to hold down higher education costs in recent years, tuition in the state remains well above the national average—a key barrier to making higher education available to more Marylanders. “From 1999 to 2009, tuition rose by 25 percent at the state’s public four-year schools and by 6 percent at its public two-year colleges, while family incomes have remained flat,” according to the report’s executive summary.
Because of the economic downturn, the state has not been able to fully implement the Maryland higher education Funding Commission’s plans to make higher education more affordable, according to the University of Pennsylvania researchers.
The commission established commendable targets, Finney said in a press release accompanying the study, “but these were unrealistic in the face of falling tax revenue. Unless the state’s leaders can find an approach that works in a weak economy as well as a strong one, higher-education reform in Maryland is in danger of stalling.”
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