Testimony of Dr. Antonio Flores

Hearing on H.R.3039, the Expanding Opportunities in Higher Education Act

House Education and the Workforce Committee
Subcommittee on 21^st Century Competitiveness

September 11, 2003

    Thank you, Chairman McKeon, Representative Hinojosa, and other distinguished members of the House Subcommittee on 21^st Century Competitiveness for allowing me to testify on behalf of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). We applaud your tireless efforts to enhance access and educational opportunity, particularly in higher education, for all citizens and deserving residents of our great nation.

    I am honored to submit written testimony in support of H.R. 3039, the Expanding Opportunities in Higher Education Act of 2003, with respect to its proposed changes for Title V, Hispanic–Serving Institutions (HSIs). I take this opportunity to urge you to incorporate into this bill the series of specific recommendations transmitted by HACU on June 10, 2003, to members of Congress on the impending reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), as amended. A copy of the "HACU Public Policy Priorities for HEA Reauthorization" is appended to my testimony for the official record of this hearing.

    HACU applauds H.R. 3039 for addressing some of our recommendations, but we are disappointed that the bill does not take into consideration the following amendments recommended by HACU on behalf of the HSI community:

1. To authorize $50 million "and such sums as may be necessary" under Title II for eligible HSIs to expand teacher education programs of high quality in academic areas of urgent national need.

2. To increase the authorized funding level for HSIs under Title V to $465 million "and such sums as may be necessary" to meet the pressing needs of exceedingly under funded HSIs and new HSIs emerging within the next five years.

3. To authorize $125 million "and such sums as may be necessary" for a new Part B under Title V for increased and improved graduate education at HSIs.

4. To authorize $50 million "and such sums as may be necessary" for a Technology Enhancement Program that would close the "digital divide" at HSIs.

5. To authorize under Title VI $30 million annually "and such sums as may be necessary" for an Institute for Pan-Hispanic International Studies through HSI consortia and $20 million for a Hispanic International Scholars and Fellows program.

6. To authorize $45 million "and such sums as may be necessary" to create a graduate fellowship program that would involve HSIs and non-HSIs in partnerships to increase Hispanic participation and success in areas of national priority.

    We thank you for the modest enhancements for HSIs included in H.R. 3039, but urge you to consider the above recommendations as described in greater detail and supported by compelling analyses in the appended document to this testimony.

    At a time when more than one of every three new workers joining the American labor force today is Hispanic, we cannot afford to continue neglecting the educational needs of this growing population that is projected to add one of every two new workers in the nation by 2025. As we envision the future of America’s population in the 21^st Century, it is imperative to recognize that failing to educate the fast-growing Hispanic population would have disastrous economic and social consequences for the entire nation. We are talking about one-half of America’s future workforce.

    As the youngest, fastest-growing, and now largest ethnic population in the nation, Hispanic Americans are mindful of their enormous historic role in advancing economic prosperity and social progress. The more Hispanics are called to assume leadership roles in government, the military, the business community, and civic life in general, the more their higher education is a requirement.

    Nearly 50 percent of the 1.8 million Hispanics in higher education are enrolled at HSIs today, and a higher percentage of them are projected to enroll at HSIs in the years ahead. Consequently, the current 219 HSIs are increasing their absolute members and proportion of Hispanic students from year to year. Furthermore, given the rapid Hispanic population growth, HACU projects that nearly 100 more HSIs will emerge within the next five years. In other words, within the next HEA reauthorization cycle, HSIs are expected to surpass the 300 mark.

    Regretfully, the authorized and appropriated funding levels for HSIs under Title V of the HEA have been inadequate at best to meet the capacity-building needs of these institutions that are the backbone of Hispanic higher education. Data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) documents that HSIs, on average, receive 50 cents per student for every federal dollar that the rest of the higher education community gets. This blatant inequity must be addressed without delay.

    In the year 2000, the U.S. Bureau of the Census reported that the median age of Hispanics was 26, compared to 36 for all other groups and to 39 for non-Hispanic whites. Likewise, it projected the near doubling of the Hispanic population under the age of 18 between 2000 and 2020, compared to a 6 percent increase for African Americans and an actual decline of 5 percent for non-Hispanic whites. As of today, nearly one of every five students in K-12 education is Hispanic, but historically only one of every 10 who started kindergarten graduated from college. These compelling statistics demand that Congress and the Federal administration ensure that funding and support for HSIs and for the higher education success of Hispanic Americans be increased dramatically, now!

    Because of the history of neglect that HSIs and Hispanic Americans have endured for so long, HACU is especially concerned about the proposed definitional changes of H.R. 3039 that would make for-profit institutions potentially eligible for the already meager funding appropriated for HSIs, especially in light of the projected increase in the number of non-profit HSIs. We urge you to reconsider this aspect of H.R. 3039, for, if enacted, it would further erode the weak federal support available to current HSIs.

    Chairman McKeon and distinguished members of this House Subcommittee, I applaud your commitment to the enhancement of HSIs and Hispanic higher education. Your championing of this national priority clearly demonstrates foresight and wisdom because the very future of our nation hangs in the balance.

    Thank you again for inviting me to testify on HACU’s behalf.

    ¡Gracias!

     The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) is the national voice of Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Hispanic higher education. Incorporated as the champion of Hispanic success in higher education in December of 1986 with 18 charter members, HACU has grown rapidly over the years to its current total membership of 350 strong, including HSIs.

    Under HACU’s advocacy, Congress first recognized HSIs in the amendments of 1992 as a national resource for federal support under Title III of the HEA. However, it was not until the 1995 fiscal year that the first appropriation of $12 million for HSIs was included in the federal budget. In the HEA amendments of 1998 the authorized funding level for HSIs was increased under a new Title V and the actual appropriations also begun to increase.

    It is worth noting that in fiscal year 1995, only 131 HSIs were designated as eligible for Title III funding as per a 25% Hispanic FTE criteria approved by Congress. Currently, 242 HSIs are designated by the U.S. Department of Education as eligible for funding under Title V. Because the amounts appropriated annually are insufficient to provide funding to all HSIs, they compete for limited funds under multi-year grant cycles of 5 years, but only about 50 percent of them receive competitive grants.

    Compared to other national higher education associations and to other higher education institutions, HACU and HSIs are very young but very strong. Their strength is fueled by the explosive demographic expansion of the youngest, fastest-growing, and largest ethnic population in the nation. In this sense, HACU and HSIs are driven by a vision of America’s future that is richly diverse and yet inclusive, rather than by a past that was oppressive and discriminatory. This is a vision for a bright future rooted in a well-educated and competitive American workforce.

    The following sections articulate how to make this vision a reality. They summarize much of the content presented in the "HACU Public Policy Priorities for HEA Reauthorization" of June 10, 2003.

    The request of $50 million under Title II for eligible HSIs reflects the national crisis that is a grim reality at many K-12 schools across the nation: the lack of qualified teachers to serve the rapidly growing cohorts of children and youth, particularly Hispanics and other students of color.  Conversely, less than five percent of the K-12 teachers nationwide are Hispanic, compared to almost 20 percent of Hispanic students in all K-12 schools.

    Student support service programs under this title, such as TRIO programs, are critical to the educational attainment of low-income and under-educated populations. We urge your support for HACU’s recommendations in its appended publication, but especially for the fair inclusion of HSIs in TRIO grant competitions to close the educational gaps between Hispanics and other populations. HSIs and other minority-serving institutions should be granted the same number of points as those given to other institutions for "prior experience" in TRIO competitions.

    In addition to family income, parents’ educational attainment, especially the mother’s, is a major predictor of student outcomes. From 1974 to 1999, the educational attainment gaps between Hispanic and non-Hispanic mothers increased significantly.  Having a mother who has less than a high school education, living in a family on public assistance programs, living in a single-parent home, and having parents whose primary language is a language other than English are considered reliable predictors of children’s future academic and socioeconomic outcomes by a major report on Hispanics of April 2003, "States and Trends in the Education of Hispanics" by the U. S. Department of Education. About 7 out of 10 (71 percent) children entering kindergarten from Hispanic families have one or more of these four risks factors.

    Yet in 1994, according to the NCES’s PEQIS online data summaries, only 13 percent of Upward Bound participants were Hispanic, compared to 49 percent African Americans and 29 percent non-Hispanic Whites. Given their high risk of educational failure, Hispanics should have a much greater participation rate in all TRIO programs through HSIs that serve their communities.

    Title V remains the chief vehicle for targeting federal funds to historically under-funded HSIs. During the last reauthorization cycle five years ago, Congressman Hinojosa introduced the landmark "Higher Education for the 21^st Century Act." Passage of that Act led to new recognition for the strategic importance of the nation’s HSIs to our economic strength and national security under a new Title V of the HEA addressing undergraduate education needs.

    The landmark Expanding Opportunities bill should build upon those improvements and include a first-time graduate education component to Title V. Without the complement of graduate education opportunities, Hispanic Americans and HSI will remain relegated to second-class status.

    HACU supports this new bill’s amendments, which will surely lay the foundation under "such sums as may be necessary" provisions to win progressively higher appropriations in each of the next five years of the reauthorized HEA to ultimately bring parity in federal funding for HSIs.

    HACU specifically is advocating that undergraduate funding for HSIs under Title V be increased to $465 million per year "and such sums as Congress deems necessary" for the authorized cycle of years following reauthorization of the HEA.

    HACU specifically recommends that the authorization level for graduate education funding for HSIs under Title V be set at $125 million "and such sums as Congress deems necessary" for each year of the HEA cycle.

    HACU is in full support of those provisions of the Expanding Opportunities bill that remove the two-year wait-out and "50 percent lower-income" provisions from existing Title V language.

    The 50-percent low-income assurance requirement applies only to HSIs, and not to any other group of Minority-Serving Institution. This requirement creates an unfair burden on HSIs. It is also onerous, since this requirement demands information not normally collected by any degree-granting institution.

    The current two-year wait-out period between applications for Title V grants undermines the intent of Title V to enhance the quality and access of higher education opportunities for HSIs and the students served by HSIs.

    The current two-year wait-out is inherently destructive in forcibly dismantling effective programs in midstream for an unnecessary two-year period before HSIs with Title V grants can again compete for another Title V grant. There simply is no logic to this requirement; yet, the costs in hampered progress of urgently needed Title V programs are immediate and profound.

    This unnecessary requirement will prove especially drastic as early as federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2004, when the first round of five-year Title V grants will expire, forcing many dozens of higher education institutions throughout the country to dismantle their programs for the two-year wait. The need to eliminate this two-year wait-out requirement is urgent and compelling.

   HACU also calls upon the committee to add an articulation component to the Expanding Opportunities bill to allow two-year/four-year articulation initiatives to be eligible for Title V grants.

   Against a backdrop of chronically low high school and college graduation rates suffered by Hispanics, two-year colleges often are the critical point of entry for Hispanic higher education students. Indeed, more than 50 percent of all Hispanic higher education students attend community colleges.

   However, the sheer volume of well-documented reports on the need for diversity in higher education and for great minority attainment of advanced education degrees calls for a new emphasis on assisting Hispanic and other under-represented minority student populations to succeed in completing two-year degree programs, and to seek and ultimately obtain four-year degrees. Supporting greater articulation between two-year and four-year institutions under Title V is necessary for this bill to achieve the desired effect of increasing the number of Hispanics obtaining baccalaureate degrees and pursuing post baccalaureate education. It is also fundamental to almost every other component of this bill.

    Colleges and universities in the United States welcome on their campuses more than five hundred thousand foreign students, but only 11 percent are from Latin America, including a meager 2 percent from Mexico. Conversely, more than one hundred fifty thousand American college students go for study abroad, more than two-thirds of them to Western Europe, nearly one-half to England alone, and the remaining one-third to all other countries. Less than 5 percent of all the American students abroad are Hispanic. These data clearly document the pressing need to incorporate HACU’s proposals for new funding for HSIs and Hispanic Americans to participate in international education programs.

    The $50 million combined request for fellowships, institutional collaboration, and Institute for Pan-Hispanic International Studies would strengthen our national security and enhance our global economic competitiveness. It is a modest investment that could yield invaluable returns to our nation. These funds would result in a much higher rate of Hispanic student participation in studies abroad, increased numbers of other non-Hispanic students at HSIs going to study in Latin America and the Caribbean, greater numbers of Latin American and Caribbean students coming to study at HSIs, and quality scholarly work and institutional development across national boundaries throughout the Americas and the Caribbean.

    HSIs should be supported to reach out to comprehensive research universities for greater articulation and transfer of Hispanics from 2-year to 4-year and from the latter to advanced research and graduate programs of national need. The $45 million in combined funds for programs and fellowships can bridge HSIs and comprehensive research institutions of international renown. This is of critical importance to the nation and to diversity at the most selective and well-endowed higher education institutions.

    HACU’s recommendations for amendments to the HEA, especially for changes to Titles II, IV, V, VI, and VII are all grounded in our best national interest for a well-educated and trained workforce, an engaged citizenry, and cost-effective approaches to economic and social progress.

    HSIs, as the backbone of a Hispanic higher education, require much greater federal support and funding to achieve their missions of educating and training the fast-growing cohorts of new students, particularly Hispanic Americans that represent the best hope for a free and prosperous America in the 21^st Century and beyond.

   Congress has a unique opportunity to correct the federal neglect of past generations of undereducated Hispanic children and youth. The nation cannot afford to continue ignoring its own future. Congress should rise to the occasion and embrace HACU’s recommendations for the good of the country.