Chicanos in Higher Education: The Politics of Self-Interest

Higher education in the United States continues to be distributed unequally, with Mexican-Americans receiving less than their fair share. In California, the state with the largest number of Mexican-Americans, 21 percent of non-Hispanic whites have at least a B.A. degree whereas only 6 percent of Hispanics are similarly well educated. At the other end of the spectrum, Mexican-Americans are found disproportionately among the ranks of the undereducated and the underemployed. Up to now, concerns about the undereducation of Hispanics have been confined to its effect on this particular group. However, as Mexican-Americans make up an increasingly larger percentage of the Southwest's population, the undereducation of Chicanos represents a growing threat to both the functioning of higher education and the economic health of the region. By the end of this decade Chicanos will constitute a quarter of the college-age population in California and Texas and a similar portion of the work force. If we continue to enroll less than 6 percent of Chicanos directly into four-year colleges and to lose 75 percent of those before graduation, there is an ever greater likelihood that higher education and the economy as a whole will suffer serious dislocations. The wellbeing of all citizens is increasingly dependent on how well we resolve the problems of education for Chicanos. Several suggestions are offered for moving more students through the educational pipeline and restructuring undergraduate education in a way that will help to stem the attrition of Chicanos prior to college graduation.