Too many Connecticut colleges continue to have low rates of completion for minority students. This failure to adequately serve students of color seeking educational opportunity in Connecticut is a civil rights injustice. At times, it can leave students worse off than before they enrolled, if they accumulate debts without earning degrees.
Connecticut should invest in systemic change to address these shortcomings.
Currently, Connecticut's Office of Higher Education currently administers a Minority Advancement Program (MAP), which provides competitive grants to institutions of higher education that are investing in college completion for minority students. However, its funding levels are wholly insufficient to build the type of infrastructures that will help students to graduate on-time and enter the workforce with the skills they need.
It's time to expand MAP so that institutions of higher education can make evidence-based investments to increase rates of retention and completion.