SEF report reveals that after thirty years of Black progress along the path to higher education parity, there are still `Miles To Go'

Washington -- More than two decades of hard-fought desegregation efforts have yielded few results and left Black students in the South with meager gains in access to the public four-year schools.

So reported the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) late last month, also revealing other bleak statistics in their latest study, Miles To Go, that assesses higher education in the nineteen states that once operated racially separate college systems.

The percentage of Blacks going to the public institutions, the foundation found, has barely budged. Black students account for 15 percent of first time, full-time freshmen undergraduates at public four-year institutions in 1976, and 17 percent in 1996.

"It's not a popular issue in the South, not because people are walking around as pointy-headed racists anymore, but because they'd rather ignore it and hope it will go away," said Robert Kronley, the study's author and head of the foundation's program on educational opportunity and postsecondary desegregation. "But the evidence shows that we're not going to be able to close our eyes and will these problems away."

Widely received in the higher education community, the report noted Black students at public institutions in the South remain largely at community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and are scarcely represented in the state flagship institutions.

Only 12.1 percent of the Blacks entering public institutions of higher education in the nineteen states in 1996 went to traditionally White schools, the study found. As a result, Blacks accounted for only 8.6 percent of the freshmen attending flagship state universities across the South.

Nine of the states in the study reported that the percentage of Blacks in their freshman classes in fact declined between 1991 and 1996.

The study also revealed that Blacks are more likely than Whites to leave college without degrees. While 14.7 of freshmen at the South's four-year institutions in 1988 were Black, only 9.8 percent of those who received a degree within six years were Black.

And the percentage of Blacks among students earning doctoral degrees climbed less than a percentage point in two decades, from 3.8 percent in 1976-77 to 4.3 percent in 1994-95. Among those Blacks who earn doctoral degrees, almost half are concentrated in the field of education.

How Did This Happen?

The study points to several reasons the public flagship institutions -- considered to have stronger academic programs, greater professional networks, and more credentialed faculty than community colleges and HBCUs -- have been all but inaccessible for African American students.

Kronley said that conflicting court decisions over the use of race in college admissions and the current political battle over affirmative action have given some state officials excuses to slow or eliminate race-based remedies.

The report also cites higher admissions standards at flagship schools and inefficient preparation in secondary schools as prime reasons why Black students simply aren't successful at gaining admission to public, four-year schools.

The South also was faulted for its high percentage of merit-based, as opposed to need-based, financial aid. The study found that on average, southern states distributed more than one-third of all their financial aid without consideration of need -- a whopping 10 times the percentage of aid being distributed on a non-need basis in the thirty-one other states. And in twelve of the nineteen states studied, at least 30 percent of all Black families had incomes under $10,000.

Additionally, the report found that Black faculty -- whom the authors describe as "essential for providing role models and mentoring" -- were concentrated mainly at community colleges and HBCUs. In Mississippi, 87 percent of Black faculty were at community or historically Black colleges. In North Carolina, that number was 80 percent. In Maryland, the number was 66 percent.

Hardly anyone concerned with the fate of minorities in higher education was surprised by the statistics exposed in the study.

"This is old news. It's almost like the Kerner report. It didn't say anything we didn't already know," said Dr. Roscoe Brown, who runs the center for urban educational policy at the City University of New York's graduate center.

Dr. James McLean, who ran the desegregation efforts in Virginia under then-Gov. Douglas Wilder, said the report's findings sound like "deja vu."

"In 1968, these same states were asked to develop plans to desegregate their systems and nothing happened until 1972," he said. "In 1972, all but two developed plans and those plans ranged from no plans to plans to plan."

Who's to Blame?

Many said the states -- which were federally mandated to desegregate their institution of higher learning as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Adams case of 1972 -- never showed any real level of commitment to parity.

"If the states were truly interested in equity and desegregation, they would have put those attractive programs at the HBCUs long ago," said Dr. Reggie Wilson, senior scholar for the American Council on Education.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who was the lead plaintiff in the Fordice case that desegregated Mississippi's public colleges and universities, said that in his state, guaranteeing access for minorities has never been a priority.

"I don't have any confidence in Mississippi state higher education officials with regards to taking the leadership to desegregate the flagship schools," he said. "These are people they play golf with. They're not about to upset the apple cart."

He said that the separate but unequal college system there has been around so long that it's taken for granted today. "We're trying to change tradition," he said. "The tradition has been around so long, it's almost law."

Dr. Johnny L. Harris, president of J.F. Drake State Technical College in Huntsville, Alabama, said that "this whole thing is politically controlled by people who don't care a whole lot about Blacks."

But Thompson pointed out that there are several Black politicians who have been remiss in the desegregation efforts.

"We have a significant number of African American elected officials in the South," he said. "They're usually the number one or number two person on the committees affecting the HBCUs. We've got to start putting some of those folks out to fire."

Dr. N. Joyce Payne, who oversees advancement and public Black colleges for the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, said that the blame should be shared.

"It comes from the bottom all the way up to the highest levels of leadership -- the national leadership, the Congress, the state legislatures," she said. "This is a commitment that needs to be built into the fabric of our society."

Others, pointed to negligence in the Black community.

"You can't blame all our problems on other folks," said Thompson. "The responsibility for at least raising the issue falls on the impacted class, which would be Black students, parents, and those of us in the Black community who give a damn."

"In some ways, we internalize the stereotypes and do not place enough demand on the school system for high quality education," said Brown. "That's something we need to deal with in our own community."

`A Wake-Up Call'

Many people also cited the U.S. Department of Education for its role in the matter. The department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) -- which oversaw state efforts to desegregate higher education -- loosened its reins on many states during the 1980s.

Eldridge W. McMillan, the SEF's chief executive officer, said OCR was irresponsible for letting the states operate under good faith.

"During the eighties and nineties, nothing was going on and OCR declared them [the states] in compliance," he said.

"Unless there is a federal presence forcing things, we'll go through another twenty five years of litigation just to prove what we already know," said Thompson,

Kronley said that while the report was aimed at state responsibilities, it's important for everyone to be a part of the solution.

"From the governor on down to the private sector and the business sector, this all of us," he said.

Kronley noted, however, that in drafting the report, the foundation was careful not to point any fingers.

"This is much too complicated to say that this is your fault or this is their fault," he said. "The report is very clear that there are some promising practices in many states. What needs to be done next is to elevate those practices."

And elevate people to action, said Brown.

"This should be a wake-up call. It tells it like it is. Now we have to deal with it," he said.

RELATED ARTICLE: Picture Painted by SEF Not Completely Dismal

WASHINGTON -- While the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) reported last month that Blacks have made few gains in access to public institutions of higher education in the South, many scholars said they took the report with a grain of salt.

The grim statistics presented in Miles To Go -- the foundation's latest assessment of the desegregation efforts in the nineteen states that operated under dual systems of education -- are indeed alarming, said many research analysts. But other statistics points to a much brighter picture.

For example, national enrollment percentages for Black students at public Institutions are on the rise, said Dr. N Joyce Payne, director of advancement and Public Black colleges for the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant colleges.

According to recent study done by the Association of enrollment trends from fall 1990 to fall 1996, more Black students are attending public four-year institutions. Nationally, there was a 17 percent increase in all Black students attending public four-year schools, and 20 percent increase in Black females.

Payne also said that the number of minority students who are graduating from high school is one on the rise, which will presumably increase enrollment figures at colleges and universities in the near future.

Many also pointed to the fact that the average age of college students is increasing -- a fact that, if accounted for, could skew the foundation's study. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 20 percent of all undergraduates were over 24 years old in 1995. Many suspect that percentage is higher for Black students. Miles To Go compared to percentage of Black college students with the percentage of Black eighteen-to-twenty-four-years-olds in the Black population.

Additionally, looking at the bigger picture of enrollment trends in those nineteen states states requires taking the private institutions into account, said Dr. Michael Nettles, of the Frederick Patterson Research Institute, the research arm of the College Fund/UNCF.

"The privates represent 40 percent of colleges in the South and 30 percent of Black students go to private institutions," he said.

Additionally, he pointed out that while the foundation doesn't emphasize it, SEF's figures show that more Black students are at the traditionally White institutions than the historically Black ones. According to the SEF report, 34.4 percent of Black freshman were at traditionally White institutions in 1996 and 26.5 percent were at historically Black schools.

Nettles added that the foundation did a comprehensive study of the public institutions in the South, but stressed that the research shouldn't stop there.

"The same kind of issues that SEF is raising on publics, we should also raise on privates and nationally," he said.

RELATED ARTICLE: Community Colleges Respond

WASHINGTON -- Community college hold strong as a postsecondary access point for African American students according to Miles To Go, the Southern Education Foundation's report on the status of minority education in the South.

Regionally, the report found that 39 percent of Black students in the public institutions in the nineteen southern states studied were at community colleges. In Mississippi, 61.2 percent of Blacks in higher education are at community colleges. In Alabama, the number is 51.3 percent.

However, Dr. Clifford Adelman, a senior research analyst for the U.S. Department of Education, said the foundation's report is misleading because the study didn't take into account all the Black students attending private historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the South. Without them, he said, the report paints a picture that Black students go to community colleges at inordinately high rates.

"Black students are no more likely to go to community college than White kids. In fact, in the South they are less likely," he said. "And when you factor in all the Black students at private HBCUs in the South, you get that perspective,".

And anyway, said Dr. Belle Wheelan, president of Northern Virginia Community College, it's not such bad thing when students go to a two-year school.

"We are the college of choice when [Black students] can't get into four-year schools," she said. "They're still being productive, and they'll be able to get into the job market."

Dr. Jacquelyn M. Belcher, president of Georgia Perimeter College in Decatur, said it's encouraging to see Black at two-year institutions -- especially in light of figures showing a deline in the African American baccalaureate completion rate.

"How many finish a four-year degree?" she asks parents who tell her they're disappointed their child is at a two-year school. "Wouldn't you want them to have something?"

Wheelan said the higher education community traditionally has viewed two-year institutions as lesser schools, but people wouldn't think that community colleges provide insufficient training for African American students.

"One thing people don't understand is that most of the jobs available do not demand a four-year degree," she said. "Many African American students want to get a good job. They can do that by going to a community college."

Adelman added that the foundation, which appears to be dismissive of two-year colleges at some points in the report, does the public a disservice by not encouraging the community college movement.

"They beat up a community colleges just at a point when community colleges are offering the best opportunities," he said. "They implied that they are no-good places where Black kids get stuck. There are a lot of good community colleges in those nineteen states training students in the fastest-growing occupation for good jobs with good salaries.

"That's pretty irresponsible," he continued. "Just at the moment when North Carolina drops tuition at the two-year schools, just at the moment when community colleges are training people in some of the hottest professions, we're gonna tell Black kids not to go. That's typical White man's arrogance. That's exactly what we've been doing to Black kids for years."

RELATED ARTICLE: Family Income and College Tuition in the South, 1995

                   Average Tuition at
                       Four-Year         Average of Black
State              Public Institutions    Family Income

Alabama                  $2,120              $19,786
Arkansas                  1,958               16,663
Delaware                  3,268               27,123
Florida                   1,772               25,742
Georgia                   2,148               27,201
Kentucky                  2,218               20,653
Louisiana                 2,038               19,656
Maryland                  3,181               28,602
Mississippi               2,410               18,792
Missouri                  2,637               19,384
North Carolina            1,502               22,789
Ohio                      3,232               23,262
Oklahoma                  1,881               20,923
Pennyslvania              4,846               23,679
South Carolina            2,996               26,921
Tennessee                 1,987               23,096
Texas                     1,910               25,633
Virginia                  3,921               28,565
West Virginia             2,020               23,058

                   Percent of Black       Average White
State                Family Income         Family Income

Alabama                  10.7%               $37,040
Arkansas                 11.8%                31,571
Delaware                 12.0%                41,376
Florida                   6.9%                37,173
Georgia                   7.9%                39,720
Kentucky                 10.7%                33,019
Louisiana                10.4%                35,991
Maryland                 11.1%                45,732
Mississippi              12.8%                33,982
Missouri                 13.6%                33,799
North Carolina            6.6%                38,239
Ohio                     13.9%                38,051
Oklahoma                  9.0%                34,887
Pennyslvania             20.5%                38,391
South Carolina           11.1%                39,442
Tennessee                 8.6%                35,445
Texas                     7.5%                42,161
Virginia                 13.7%                43,854
West Virginia             8.8%                27,937

                   Percent of White
State                Family Income

Alabama                   5.7%
Arkansas                  6.2%
Delaware                  7.9%
Florida                   4.8%
Georgia                   5.4%
Kentucky                  6.7%
Louisiana                 5.7%
Maryland                  7.0%
Mississippi               7.1%
Missouri                  7.8%
North Carolina            3.9%
Ohio                      8.5%
Oklahoma                  5.4%
Pennsylvania             12.6%
South Carolina            7.6%
Tennessee                 5.6%
Texas                     4.5%
Virginia                  8.9%
West Virginia             7.2%

Source: Southern Educational Foundation, based on data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, Current Population Survey, 1995