How the CARES Act short-changes Latino students

The CARES Act was supposed to ease the massive financial burden colleges and universities incurred because of the coronavirus pandemic, but since the Department of Education announced how much money would be allotted for each institution, organizations have complained that the funding formula is deeply flawed. Some Ivy league universities were allotted several millions, causing even President Donald Trump to say Harvard University shouldn’t get to keep any money from CARES.

Now, an analysis published this week highlights another flaw of the funding formula. Hispanic-serving institutions (those that have a Latino enrollment of at least 25 percent) were allocated funds to support 66 percent of their enrolled students, and non-HSIs were allocated funds to support 78 percent of their students, according to Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Latino students in higher education.

The investment for these institutions “needs to be equitable and not equal,” said Deborah Santiago, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Excelencia in Education.

Trump signed the CARES Act into law in late March, and within weeks the Department of Education released details of how much each college and university would be allotted and the math behind its funding formula. The problem, says Excelencia, is that the funding formula relies heavily on the number of full-time equivalent students who are enrolled at an institution. There are 539 HSIs, and 52 percent of HSI students attend school part time, compared to 33 percent of students at non-HSIs. Three part-time students generally equals one full-time student, in funding terms, according to the analysis.

Under CARES, Hispanic-serving institutions received about $3.5 billion dollars, according to Excelencia. The average per HSI would be around $6.5 million. Because many students at HSIs are from lower-income households, that amount may not always be sufficient.

Even before Covid-19 illnesses struck, many Latino students had a tough road ahead for college completion, which advocates say makes it even more critical for students at Hispanic-serving institutions to receive financial help. About 44 percent are the first in their families to attend college, according to Excelencia. And while 53 percent of white students receive federal financial aid to complete college, 60 percent of Latino students receive federal help, according to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute.

About 67 percent of Latino undergraduates attend a Hispanic-serving college or university, and many live at home, which can make attending college online during the pandemic a challenge.

“Maybe they don’t have as much dedicated access to a laptop or dedicated access to Wi-Fi,” said Anne-Marie Núñez, a professor in the department of educational studies at Ohio State University. “All of that was going on before Covid-19. Covid-19 kind of exacerbates that and some of these associated inequalities for Latinx students.”

To help close the digital divide, Texas A&M College-San Antonio has loaned laptops to students as well as devices that provide internet access, said Cynthia Teniente-Matson, the college’s president. The college was allotted $5.6 million through the CARES Act.

“The money is definitely not enough,” she said. Half was for emergency grants for students.

“But we also then had to create and supplement institutional aid to help those students which were in the DACA category and were excluded from eligibility along with international students,” she added. “And that was pretty significant.”

The college created an emergency fund to help students who were ineligible for money under CARES. Through the fund, 16 students received a total of $4,800 dollars.

“We maximize those at $300, but still $300 has been a real bridge for students who had real need that might have been excluded from other areas that allowed them to come here,” Teniente-Matson said.

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities is working with other groups that represent minority-serving institutions to lobby Congress, and asked for an addition $1.7 billion for such institutions through the HEROES Act, the stimulus package that recently passed in the House.

“On average, HSIs only get 68 cents on the federal dollar going to all of their colleges and universities annually, despite HSIs educating a disproportionately low-income and underrepresented student population,” said John Aguilar, the executive director of legislative affairs at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and University.

The pandemic has opened the door for institutions to quickly transform and innovate, but without sufficient financing, HSIs say they will be limited in how much they can do.

“A lot of these institutions have been trying to do more with less for a long time, especially community colleges,” Santiago said. “I think you’re at the point where you’re hitting bone.”