“H Equal P: How HEOPs Can Bring Equity in Higher Education” by Maximillien Raymond

 

When talking about what is most important to the development of individual people and society, one may argue that education is the factor that weighs the heaviest. In this context, education is the knowledge gained from a source that has the intention of teaching its receivers something new about the world or themselves. Education can hold so much value to people because it leads to many opportunities that allow us to support ourselves and our families. Unfortunately, higher education is essentially inaccessible to a significant portion of the black population in the United States which makes the need for Higher Education Opportunity Programs (HEOP) even greater.

I am a member of a HEOP called the New Opportunities at Hofstra (NOAH) program. NOAH was formed in 1964 and served as the model program for HEOPs. Today, it is an HEOP program itself that has allowed me and many other students from low-income backgrounds to attend Hofstra. Normally, Hofstra wouldn’t be affordable for me as my family wouldn’t be able to keep up with paying the associated costs of attending Hofstra without taking loans that I would be struggling to pay off long after graduation. Being accepted into Hofstra as a NOAH scholar has allowed me to get my course materials, pay for room and board, dine at Hofstra, and attend courses with almost all expenses paid.

I was a part of a summer program prior to my first semester on campus which prepares me for the start of my college career with workshops, mentoring, courses, and an introduction to the other students who have become beneficiaries of the program. The support of the program doesn’t end there. I also receive the support of two additional deans, a network of students who are also a part of the program, and the networks of the people all when just setting foot on campus for the first time as a freshman.

Overall, the NOAH program allows me to attend Hofstra without putting a significant financial burden on my family while providing me with a network of many great opportunities that helps me achieve the success that I have been striving for. Unfortunately, even with programs like the NOAH program, we still see that the black community still represents a small number of college and university students.

We need to find ways to boost the number of people in black college graduates. It was found in 2022 that only 6,787,114 black people within the U.S.’s total population of 333,287,562 have at least a bachelor’s degree. This is equal to only 2.03 percent of the U.S.’s total population. Even if you were to compare the number of people who identify as black with at least a bachelor’s degree to the total population of black people, you would find that only 14 percent of people identifying as black have at least a bachelor’s degree (6,787,114 out of 47,859,760 people). No matter whether you want to compare them to the entire population or just their population as a whole, it is evident that a relatively small number of black-identified people own a bachelor’s degree or higher.

While it can be difficult to pinpoint why every black person doesn’t attend college, there are two reasons that I believe play a major factor based on my personal experience and the data in the previous paragraph—low income and a lack of diversity. As I’ve said before, I wouldn’t be able to attend Hofstra without the NOAH program due to Hofstra being a school that my family cannot afford. HEOPs make it a requirement that you must be economically disadvantaged to be eligible for the program. 37 percent of students attending high poverty elementary and secondary schools are black. Given this information, it seems that many black students are in need of the academic support that I have been given. You are not guaranteed to make it into an HEOP like I have. As a matter of fact, an HEOP like my own is very competitive with recent classes consisting of only 14 people. Not everyone gets an opportunity like me, so they may avoid higher education due to the cost.

Speaking of diversity, it can already be seen that black college and university students are the minority, so it may not be completely unreasonable to assume that black people are a minority in higher education. With so little black representation, black students may be overwhelmed especially in predominantly white institutions. While classes are an important part of the college experience, the culture plays a part too. Without feeling that there is a place to express themselves, blacks may leave their college or university because they don’t feel that they belong.

So, a relatively small number of black-identified people actually earn a bachelor’s degree. However, this shouldn’t be an issue as a bachelor’s degree isn’t the sole indicator for success. There are people out there who serve as examples of those who can make a living without attending college. While a degree isn’t a prerequisite for success, it seems that the statistics support the stance that getting a bachelor’s degree or higher can improve your chances of achieving financial success. While the data fails to account for individual careers and race, it has been found that “men with bachelor’s degrees earn approximately “$900,000 more in their median lifetime than high school graduates”. Even women (who some have argued have a more difficult time in the job market than men) manage to earn $600,000 more in median lifetime earnings than high school graduates. The numbers grow even larger when looking at men and women with graduate degrees as men earn $1.5 million more and women earn $1.1 million more than high school graduates.

Well now that the value of having people pursue education has been shown, we need to figure out how to get more advanced degrees in the hands of black folks. To find a solution, we must first understand the problem. Given that many colleges and universities require payment in order to enroll in their educational programs, money serves as one if not the clearest obstacle that prevents people from attending and finishing their degree programs. Black people seem to have a considerable amount of issues with money relative to other racial groups. Black people owe over $25,000 more in debt than their white counterparts on average and owe 188 percent more than what their white counterparts borrowed. White people borrow less and have less debt due to generations of investments increasing their wealth. This is known as the generational wealth gap. The large gap in debt may be just what leads to so few black people earning at least a bachelor’s degree. After all, why would one continue going to college if one cannot afford all the debt that comes along with attending college? Perhaps if we could find ways to help get black people into college while giving them little to no debt, they would stand a better chance at earning higher education degrees.

President Biden lists some policies he thinks should advance educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity for Black Americans in an Executive Order: provide education detailing systemic causes of educational barriers, increase participation in early childhood programs, eliminate discriminatory referrals, facilitate improvement with data studies, and improve available resources amongst other solutions. Looking at Biden’s reforms, it seems he looks to provide black people with the knowledge and resources that eliminate barriers to well-paying careers early on and better the educational environment for black students. With these changes, we can potentially find a brighter future for the next generation of black communities in America.

As it stands now, higher levels of education are difficult for many in the black community to obtain due to the costs that come along with it. However, we can use debt-free alternatives to paying off college and university costs such as HEOPs to make attending higher education much less stressful and accessible. With the right adjustments, we can make higher education available to the entire black community thus allowing them to live their lives free of financial stressors.

Maximillien Raymond is a Junior at Hofstra University from Brentwood, NY who majors in Philosophy and Rhetoric & Public Advocacy with a concentration in Political Communication. He is an Undergraduate Student Fellow at the Center for "Race," Culture and Social Justice, Resident Assistant, NOAH Scholar, Math Tutor, and member of the Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Sigma Tau Honor Societies.