FACTSHEET – Addressing Racial and Spatial Postsecondary Disparities—Rural Latino Youth

Sansone discusses racial and spatial postsecondary disparities. Despite ongoing efforts by K-12 school districts, colleges, and federal agencies to provide opportunities to engage all students in the college-going process, Latino youth living in rural communities do not have equitable access to high-quality and affordable postsccondary higher education options and remain overlooked. Many rural Latino youth are also facing multiple hardships influenced by preexisting racial, socioeconomic, and other social cultural disparities--including job loss, education loss, and death--that affect rural communities of color. All of these hardships have been amplified by COVID-19, as well as anti-immigration, anti-English language learner, and anti-Latino federal policy regimes. As such, Latino youth living in rural areas where large populations of Latinos reside are less likely to benefit from college opportunities, and they may continue to experience greater social and economic losses that will have disparate impacts not only on the individuals, but also on the rural regions where they live.