AMELIA ISLAND, FLORIDA — Despite record achievements by women and minority college students, Southern Regional Education Board states face an unprecedented education challenge as college becomes less affordable and population changes continue, reports the 50th anniversary edition of the SREB Fact Book on Higher Education, released here today during the SREB Annual Meeting.
One of the nation’s most respected and comprehensive sources of higher education data, the Fact Book presents the latest higher education trends and tracks progress in SREB’s 16 member states — from Texas to Delaware. The 2007 edition shows that:
College enrollment trends are promising, but gaps in graduation rates remain. Women accounted for 67 percent of college enrollment growth in the SREB region from 1995 to 2005. The enrollment of women rose 31 percent in the region over the period, compared with a 19 percent increase in the enrollment of men.
Even more significantly, the enrollment of black students in SREB states rose 52 percent to a total of 1.1 million. This means that for the first time, black individuals represented as large a percentage of the region’s college students (21 percent) as of the total population (19 percent).
The enrollment of Hispanic students rose 71 percent in SREB states to 552,400 from 1995 to 2005. Despite this gain, the college-going rate of Hispanic 18- to 24-year-olds lagged behind the rates for black and white students in the U.S. in 2005.
In the SREB region as a whole, 52 percent of freshmen who enrolled in public four-year colleges in 1999 graduated by 2005 — below the national average of 54 percent. At 17 percent, the region’s graduation rate at two-year colleges also was below the U.S. average of 22 percent.
Black students, however, earned 16 percent of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in SREB states in 2005, topping the 10 percent national average. At 8 percent, the proportion of Hispanic students in SREB states earning bachelor’s degrees in 2005 also beat the U.S. average of 7 percent.
Population changes could challenge future gains in education attainment. More than half of the overall U.S. population growth in the next 20 years is expected to be in SREB states.
"Most importantly, population growth is expected to be the greatest for racial/ethnic and lower-income groups who have been the least likely to go to college, the least likely to graduate from college and who face the largest affordability gaps in paying for college," SREB President Dave Spence said. "This means that SREB states’ continued education progress will be challenged."
College affordability gap grows for middle- and lower-income students. Sixty-three percent of undergraduates at public four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. in 2004 did not have enough money to cover the costs of college, even with family contributions, scholarships and grants. The portion of annual household income needed to attend a public university for one year has climbed steadily in the past 20 years, especially for students from middle- and lower-income families. In 2006 in the U.S., the cost of tuition, fees, room and board for one year at a public university was 29 percent of annual income for households in the middle fifth of incomes — up 12 percentage points since 1986.
"College enrollment and graduation trends are positive in general, but efforts to ensure that affordable college opportunities are available to all students will be increasingly important to the region’s — and the nation’s — educational progress," President Spence said. "We must continue to work together to find ways to help more students pursue and complete a college education."
For more information on your state’s higher education trends, contact SREB Communications or see your state’s Featured Facts report from the Fact Book at www.sreb.org.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
