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This report addresses the disparity between improved representation of Black and Latino students in colleges and low graduation rates in comparison to White students. White students are over represented at selective public colleges that are well-funded with high graduation rates, while Blacks and Latinos are funneled into overcrowded and underfunded open-access public colleges with low graduation rates. The gap in funding for instructional and academic support between selective and open-access public colleges has also been growing, which makes the system even more separate and unequal. The authors present four key findings: (1) there are more than enough Black and Latino students who are qualified to fill the seats that would equalize representation by race and ethnicity at selective public colleges; (2) students at selective colleges have an 85 per cent chance of graduating, while students at open-access colleges have only a 51 per cent chance of graduating; (3) selective public colleges spend, on average, almost three times as much per full-time equivalent student on instructional and academic support as open-access public colleges and; (4) Florida is the only state where the share of Latinos in selective public colleges is equal to the proportion of Latinos in the college-age population. Blacks are not proportionately represented in selective public colleges in any state, although Kentucky comes close. The authors make the case for policies that improve equity of access such as moving away from the over reliance on test scores as a defining metric for admission, and adopting a needs-based funding model for all public colleges.

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