Long Beach City College (LBCC) President Eloy Ortiz Oakley testified today in front of the United States Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in the name of higher education as the country prepares to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA).

Head Shot 2013 2014Oakley’s testimony was included since LBCC is a designated Hispanic-serving institution—a designation it has held for 17 years now—with 46% of its student population being Latino/Hispanic as of Fall 2013. Given the hearing was specifically focused on how to strengthen minority serving institutions (MSIs), Oakley’s presence was a given.

Calling MSIs “the gateway to higher education for millions of Americans,” Oakley was both forthright and hopeful about what should be addressed in the reauthorization of the HEA and where education can eventually lead.

Noting that Latino populations account for 14% of total enrollment at degree-granting institutions as of 2012, they also represent a population that is significantly less likely to complete their education: 11% of 22- to 24-year-old Latinos have earned at least a bachelors, half of the 22% national average for the white population.

“This gap, which fortunately is closing, has major economic and policy implications and should be addressed in the reauthorization of the HEA,” Oakley said. “Closing this and other achievement gaps and increasing the number of students receiving a community college credential or becoming transfer ready are the primary goals of LBCC and should be incentivized through the HEA.”

Oakley went on to note the ways that LBCC has tried—and to a large extent, succeeded in—narrowing this gap. He highlighted the College Promise, the three-way partnership between Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), LBCC, and Cal State Long Beach (CSULB), as a prime example of how a “holistic system” existing at multiple levels can result in student success.

“More than 57,000 middle school students and their parents have completed and signed Long Beach College Promise Pledges, which commits parent and student to satisfactorily completing college and career preparatory courses,” Oakley said. “There has been 43 percent increase in LBUSD students enrolling at CSULB despite significant increases in overall selectivity.”

Oakley’s direct recommendations for federal policy included:

  • Expand support for MSIs through increased funding for completion support programs as demand increases and permit dominantly minority-filled colleges with access to multiple grant applications rather than limited ones; this could be mainly achieved through altering Titles III and V of the HEA.
  • Increase the sharing of student data to better improve assessment of and placement for students.
  • Provide incentives, including money, for institutions which promote and create college readiness, like LBCC and its College Promise program.
  • Make Pell Grants a year-round program to benefit all students.
  • Simplify the application process for federal aid (the FASFA), which is often considered a bloated, overly complicated process that inhibits many students from properly completing them due to cultural and language barriers as well as not knowing about the true cost of education.
  • Incentivize student success through financial aid, or what Oakley called “aid like a paycheck” mentality with financial aid.
  • Increase the benefits and premium placement for transfer students to quicken the path to bachelor’s degree success.
  • Align federal laws related to higher education and workforce preparation so that the financial risk and cost for institutions is minimized and program performance becomes more transparent.

“But what is most promising and important for this committee to know is that these findings are not unique to LBCC. The potential reach of this extends throughout California and the US,” Oakley said.