Educational opportunity at the crossroads: New York State vs College Students of Color

By Blanca E. Vega, Doctoral Candidate at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, Race-Talk contributor

The days of openly supporting the educational ambitions of students of color are gone. More and more institutions of higher education continue to feel the threat of lawsuits and speculations of color consciousness if they uphold programs that specifically reach out to students of color. Prior to the 1960’s these programs, scholarships, and opportunities were once local mechanisms used by institutions to educate students of color, particularly Black students. Intervention from federal and state government on these issues was spearheaded by the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.

The administration’s “War on Poverty” agenda focused on two main issues in education: academic and economic disadvantage. Although racial “disadvantage” in education was not included as a tenet, many of the students who happen to participate in opportunity programs in New York tend to be Black or Hispanic. What are opportunity programs? Why are they important today? In this article I will provide an overview of these programs and lay out the importance of their continued funding – and a call for greater advocacy for college students of color in other states.

Outreach programs, or opportunity programs, are designed to assist students from low income and first-generation college backgrounds to succeed in higher education [1]. Some of these outreach programs once served as a bridge for students of color, specifically African American students to higher education [2].

In the last forty years, through federal, state, and private funding, opportunity programs have supported millions of students nation wide. Yet these programs continuously suffer the threat of budget cuts, lack of administrative support, and poor evaluation and assessment methods to measure success amongst participants. Because they have proven to be supportive and resourceful for many students, especially students of color, ensuring their continued support and existence remain an imperative in our educational landscape.

Between 1964 and 1979, the number of students of color and students who were economically and academically disadvantaged increased dramatically in postsecondary institutions. After the 1980’s the educational landscape dramatically changed. Cost of tuition increased and financial aid did not proliferate to meet the demands of rising tuition. Within financial aid, merit based scholarships and loans escalated – need based philosophies no longer seemed applicable in the minds of higher education policymakers who themselves benefitted from such policies such as the G.I. Bill.

Meanwhile, opportunity programs saw decreases in their budgets which meant they were able to educate fewer and fewer students. Additionally, the outreach programs that have survived this era of colorblindness in higher education tend to be the ones that do not include race as a criterion for selecting students.

Why is race an important consideration in educational policy? Students of color who come from low-income backgrounds face many challenges in their pursuit of higher education. Many attend poorly funded, racially segregated schools, have serious concerns about the affordability of higher education, come from families whose parents have low educational attainment, and often lack academic preparation that would guide them for a college experience.

Outreach programs address these factors that are obstacles to college access for many students. Additionally, outreach programs can serve as institutional agents providing information such as tutoring, career exploration, academic enrichment, college admissions, and financial aid – all key to the college choice process. Because students of color tend to graduate from poorly funded high schools, these students often do not have the resources readily available to them during the college choice process. The impact of this lack of resources is evident: first generation, low income, students of color continue to experience low enrollment rates and high attrition rates in high school and college.