The Century Foundation has released a report, Bridging the Higher Education Divide, with recommendations of great importance to the Latino community and others that rely on community colleges as the gateway to higher education. The report recommends "adequacy" as a standard for community college funding, which would shift financing from a focus on equal access to equal outcomes. The report encourages equity advocates in states with constitutional guarantees to an education to consider law suits to press for more equitable funding. Adequacy based funding would allocate funds to students with the greatest need. If the adequacy standard were to be used by policy makers, Latino students and communities would benefit from an infusion of funds into Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), which do more than their share to serve lower income communities.

CUE endorses the adequacy standard, and has called for it previously.However, law suits are a resource-intensive proposition, which may exhaust considerable political capital at a time when equity advocates are pressing forward on access to college and financial aid for undocumented students.  Bridging the Higher Education Divide makes additional recommendations that may be more politically viable and that may be more effective in garnering resources to support Latino student success.

The report's recommendation to strengthen transfer pathways resonates with the goals of the federal Title V HSI-STEM programs, which will invest a billion dollars in community to four-year college transfer programs by the end of the decade. The report's recommendation to attach expectations for performance accountability to new funding is timely, as faculty, administrators, and legislators in many states are currently engaged in crafting new accountability strategies.

Through this e-blast and publications on our web site, CUE is pleased to make the following CUE reports and journal articles available to advocates for Latino students, communities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions to assess strategies for achieving equity in access and outcomes.

Resources for Understanding the Adequacy Standard

For the rationale for the adoption of adequacy and performance accountability in community colleges, see:

From Access to Outcome Equity: Revitalizing the Democratic Mission of the Community College, by Alicia C. Dowd (2003), published in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 586(March): 92-119.

For a discussion of the meaning of adequacy in community college financing and its historical roots in K12 finance litigation, see:

Equity and Efficiency of Community College Appropriations: The Role of Local Financing, by Alicia C. Dowd and John L. Grant (2006) Review of Higher Education 29(2): 167-194.

For insight on the "saga" of access as the defining mission of the community college, see:

Dowd, A. C. (2008). The Community College as Gateway and Gatekeeper: Moving beyond the Access Saga to Outcome Equity, by Alicia C. Dowd (2008), published in the Harvard Educational Review 77(4): 407-419. 

For recommendations for performance accountability in the Title V HSI-STEM program, see: 

Community College Change Agents at HSIs: Stewarding HSI-STEM Funds for Latino Student Success in STEM, by CUE Co-Directors Estela Mara Bensimon and Alicia C. Dowd, and RSOE doctoral students Megan M. Chase, Misty Sawatzky, Linda Taing Shieh, Raquel Rall, and Tiffany Jones, published by the Center for Urban Education, Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California.