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Despite persistent achievement gap, college enrollment among state's students of color on the rise

Tricia Grimes, acting legislative liaison with the Office of Higher Education, answers a member’s question Jan. 16 during an overview for the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Division. Photo by Paul Battaglia
Tricia Grimes, acting legislative liaison with the Office of Higher Education, answers a member’s question Jan. 16 during an overview for the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Division. Photo by Paul Battaglia

While recent statistics say that the academic achievement gap between white students and black, Latinx and American Indian students persists in Minnesota’s public schools, the percentage of Minnesota students of color enrolled in college is up.

That was among the many facts presented by the Office of Higher Education to the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Division on Wednesday.

The office is the third-largest expenditure in the higher education budget, far behind the Minnesota State system and the University of Minnesota. It oversees state financial aid for college students.

Tricia Grimes, acting legislative liaison for the office, presented a progress report on its legislatively set goal of having at least 70 percent of Minnesotans between ages 25 and 44 holding postsecondary degrees or certificates by the year 2025. Currently, that number is estimated to be about 61.4 percent.

The achievement gap plays into those statistics, in that almost two-thirds of white and Asian Minnesotans between 25 and 44 currently hold postsecondary degrees or certificates, while the numbers drop for those who are black (32 to 35 percent), Latinx (26 to 29 percent) and American Indian (22 to 26 percent).

But non-Asian students of color who graduated from Minnesota public high schools in 2017 are currently enrolled in college at increasingly higher rates. The number of black 2017 graduates from Minnesota public high schools currently enrolled in college stands at 60 percent, with 51 percent of Hispanic students in college and 46 percent of American Indian students.

Grimes emphasized that those who receive state grants stay enrolled and have a high graduation rate, which was supported by a comparison chart between students receiving state aid and those receiving only Federal Pell grants or no grant at all. That said, undergraduate enrollment in the state is at its lowest level since 2003.

Grimes also said Minnesota spends $873 per full-time equivalent undergraduate, a number that lags far behind South Carolina’s $2,190 and Georgia’s $2,032. When asked by Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-North St. Paul) why those states fund grants at such a high rate, Grimes replied that they have lotteries that earmark funds for college grants.


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