Asian Americans need just as much help as other minorities in education sector (Rep. Michael Honda)

Granted, the assumption has some truth to it.
College graduation rates among Asian Americans are the highest among all ethnic
groups, at 65 percent, followed by whites at 59 percent. The only racial/ethnic
group, furthermore, to not see their young men falling behind their
predecessors in postsecondary attainment is Asian Americans. 

Look a little deeper, however, and a divergent
trend is equally pervasive among AAPIs. According to a report published last
month by the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander
Research in Education, the majority of Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong
communities living in America, aged 25 years and older, have only a high school
degree or less. Equally disconcerting is that only 12-13 percent of them have a
bachelor’s degree or more. The same problem exists among Tongan, Samoan,
Guamanian and Native Hawaiian communities. 

Large sectors of the AAPI population, in fact,
suffer from soaring secondary school dropout rates, low rates of college
participation and low college completion rates. These low educational
attainment rates correlate with high unemployment rates, spiraling AAPI
subgroups further into poverty. The unemployment rates of poorer-performing
Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asians are three to five times greater than
those of many East Asian and South Asians. Tongan Americans, for example, who
maintain with the highest unemployment rate among all AAPI subgroups at nearly
16 percent, have some of the highest secondary school dropout rates and lowest
college completion rates. 

So how do we fix this problem? Much of the solution
lies in ensuring adequate resources and representation.  On resources,
since many AAPI-serving institutions are not recognized as minority serving
institutions (MSIs) they are, consequently, not incorporated into MSI-specific
initiatives which would ensure access to federally allocated funds and
foundation-led forums on best practices and strategies. To fix this, a clearer
definition of MSIs that includes AAPIs is necessary so that these institutions
can gain better access to a myriad of critical resources. Additionally, more
resources explicitly dedicated to college-level English-language learning and
developmental reading is essential. On this, AAPIs top the charts. Nearly half
of all AAPI community college students enroll in developmental reading courses
with another 40 percent requiring an English language course, more than any
other racial/ethnic group.

On representation, AAPI students will be better
equipped to pursue and complete education degrees if AAPIs are better
represented in leadership positions within and without the school system. That
AAPI students comprise nearly four percent of total primary and secondary
enrollment, while half that number of AAPIs are in teaching positions, makes
cultural and linguistic barriers all the more problematic. That a
disproportionately low percentage of AAPIs serve in high school and college
leadership positions – with 0.6 percent serving as public school principals,
and 0.9 percent as college presidents – increases the likelihood that
AAPI-specific concerns will remain unaddressed.

Increased AAPI representation in school teaching
and leadership positions is critical if we want to improve AAPI high school and
college completion rates. But visible AAPI leadership outside the school is
equally important. Like the young African Americans who were inspired by Barack
Obama’s ascendency to presidency, so too must AAPIs have role models in
leadership positions. That AAPIs comprise only 2.3 percent of senior executive
positions in the public sector (a figure which President Obama boosted by
nominating three AAPIs to his cabinet) and only 1.5 percent of Fortune 500
board seats in the private sector means more work must be done to inspire young
AAPIs to pursue higher education. 

Ridding our educational system of these
race-related equity gaps will take time and significant effort, but it is
possible. As a former educator for 30 years, this is a lifelong goal of mine.
By helping vulnerable minority groups pursue and complete higher education, we
simultaneously address socio-economic disparities and racial inequalities,
increase the competitiveness of America’s workforce, increase our tax base, and
provide sustainable alternatives to the ill-fated options that youth tilt
toward today. 

We can only do this if we look past the assumptions
we hold, dig deep for better data that better represents our reality, and act
quickly on that data to correct any disparities. On this, much work awaits.

Rep.
Honda is the chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.