by Edwin Mora
[First of two parts]
The nation’s ongoing economic turbulence will further hinder many Latino students’ capacity to afford college by advancing the decline of their family’s household income and diminishing student lending options.
That’s the word of Antonio Flores, president and CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
“The crisis is going to have a very detrimental effect on the ability of Latino families to pay for college. The impact can be very widespread and very long-lasting, depending on how long the economic crisis continues without light at the end of the tunnel,” pumping the word “very” all three times.
It’s HACU’s mission to improve the quality of higher education institutions by making them more inclusive and accessible to Latino students.
A study released in October by the Higher Education Research Institute at University of California-Los Angeles’ Graduate School of Education and Information Studies covers household income of Latino students.
Its research shows a growing discrepancy between household incomes of Latino and non-Latino students at four-year colleges and universities over the past 30 years. The income difference skyrocketed from $7,986 in 1975 to $32,965 in 2006.
With the economy in shambles, the financial state of Hispanic students isn’t likely to get any better.
A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute reveals that the Hispanic workforce is prone to face tougher financial challenges than other workers due to the downturn. This is largely because Latinos’ finances did not improve during the latest recovery period. They were, not surprisingly, worse than when the recession began.
“It’s disturbing that the Latino household income will continue to shrink as a result of the economic crisis,” says Flores.
The economic status of the average Latino household fuels the financial aid dependency exhibited by many Hispanic college students.
Financial aid was a top priority when Latino freshman were considering a four-year college or university, according to the UCLA study.
“About 82 percent of our Latino students do apply for financial aid,” says Raúl Lerma, financial aid director for University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP). “We have definitely seen more students asking for the maximum aid amount this year.”
According to the UCLA report, 20 percent of Hispanic freshmen identified as a major problem their capacity to afford college. That contrasts to 8.6 percent of non-Hispanic freshman in 2006.
Latinos make up about 75 percent of UTEP’s student body, according to Lerma.
This university is one of the lower-cost schools in the University of Texas system, charging about $2,900 in tuition fees for 15 undergraduate credit hours.
The Pew Hispanic Center reveals that more than half of Latino college students are enrolled in Texas and California institutions. Next: College funding options are reduced.
(Edwin Mora is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. E-mail: emora83@gmail.com). ©2009
