Blacks, Latinos Lag Whites in Completing High School, Attending College : Education: Report on minorities in higher education is debated by both sides in the affirmative action debate.

Amid a growing national debate over whether race-based affirmative action policies are still needed, a new report has found that black and Latino students in the United States remain much less likely to complete high school and attend college than their white counterparts.

The gap in high school graduation rates has narrowed some over the past 20 years, although it remains large. But the disparity in college participation rates actually has widened, according to the report by the American Council on Education.

“We clearly see the disparities in our society are still there. There is a continuing need for affirmative action, equal-opportunity types of programs,” said Deborah Carter, co-author of the report for the council, the nation’s major association of colleges and universities.

According to the group’s 13th annual study on the status of minorities in higher education, 83.4% of whites ages 18-24 in the country had earned either a high school diploma or an equivalency degree by 1993, compared to 74.8% among blacks and 60.7% among Latinos.

In terms of college participation, 41.8% of white high school graduates ages 18-24 reported being enrolled in two- or four-year colleges in 1993, compared to 35.8% for Latinos and 32.8% for blacks, according to the council.

The report did not address the reasons for the disparities. But Carter, associate director of the council’s Office of Minorities in Higher Education, pointed to historic differences in family income, parental education and academic preparation between white and minority students.

The findings, based on U.S. Census data, were quickly cited by affirmative action advocates as support in their fight against pending efforts to dismantle race-based preferences in education and elsewhere. But opponents argued the discrepancies can be addressed through other means.

In California, affirmative action foes are pushing a prospective 1996 state ballot measure that would outlaw race and gender-based preferences in education and government hiring. And nationally, the White House is reviewing 168 such federal programs amid mounting criticism of them.

“The preferential policies as far as I’m concerned are a phony solution. There’s a lot we could be doing in focusing on individuals instead of ethnic groups. But we are not,” said Glynn Custred, the Cal State Hayward professor who co-authored the proposed state ballot measure.

Custred said he considers the disparities in student performance a problem that the state must solve. But he suggested that special admission or other aid programs based on economic need would help close the gap, without creating the kinds of tensions as current policies.

The disparities between white and minority student performance documented in the council’s report came as no surprise to either side in the debate. Similar figures have been reported in prior years. But Carter, the report’s co-author, said the findings serve as a reminder that past inequities have not been erased.

Carter said she was surprised that whites widened their lead over black and Latino students in college participation rates, despite years of affirmative action. “That really gives you pause when you hear opponents say affirmative action is taking opportunities away from whites,” she said.

According to the report, whites, Latinos and blacks all increased the percentage of high school graduates going on to college over the past two decades. But the gap between whites and minorities grew wider, as the white students’ rate increased 11.6 percentage points, versus 8.8 points for blacks and 6.7 points for Latinos between 1973 and 1993.

“Some people speculate that means affirmative action policies haven’t done any good. But we can’t say that,” Carter said. “I think we’d be in a much, much worse situation if we hadn’t done the things we’ve done.”