Editor,
I want to correct a statistical error in Alberto Belmares' letter in Monday's Daily Lobo.
I just looked at the 2007 U.S. Census that he quotes. It is not that 13 percent of the college degrees went to Hispanics but 13 percent of Hispanics have college degrees, compared to 29 percent nationwide.
This is a clear sign that the educational attainment gap is still too wide. The failure of our society to provide education to all people leads to a vicious cycle of educational and economic disparity, as those who cannot afford college will remain unskilled and poor and will not be able to give their children a better chance at life.
Our country is proud that anyone can be successful with enough hard work, but with this system, the working class is kept in its place without being able to improve, no matter how much effort it puts in.
In addition, the educational disparity prevents diversity in universities, as the statistics illustrate. The Lottery Scholarship has good intentions, but every time we give scholarships to the underprivileged, universities see this potential influx of new revenue and raise tuition accordingly to maximize profit.
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Why else does tuition rise faster than the rate of inflation? Our goal as a University should be first and foremost to educate the people of New Mexico, so that the ability to access education and become successful will have nothing to do with race or ethnicity.
Our last goal should be to maximize profit. We can do this by keeping tuition increases on a par with the rate of inflation, as well as continuing the Lottery Scholarship with the same level of benefits for recipients.
Carl Grover
UNM student
