We need to make the American dream accessible to all people

Hispanics in the United States have always been paradoxical — both ultra-invested in their heritage yet proudly all-American; more law-abiding in the immigrant stages of life in the U.S. yet more likely to brush with the police in subsequent generations.

Another paradox is that no matter how demonized or discriminated against, Latinos continue to be more likely than the general U.S. public to believe in the promise of the American dream.

For 77 percent of Hispanics, compared with 62 percent of the total U.S. population, it’s an article of faith that hard work will pay off and a similar proportion believe that each successive generation will better off than the one before it, according to the Pew Research Center.

But the optimism is colored by realism — 74 percent of Latinos said attaining the American dream is difficult for people like them.

And if we look at the generally assumed best path to socioeconomic mobility — i.e., a college education — that particular calculation is spot on.

By all accounts, Hispanics are underrepresented on college campuses.

And even the academic stars struggle: Latinos with high SAT/ACT test scores have similar rates of college enrollment to whites, but only 63 percent of them complete a degree or other credential compared to 78 percent of white students with similar test scores, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (Georgetown CEW), an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute.

Thirty-three percent of firstgeneration Latino students had left school without earning a credential, compared with 26 percent of students whose parents had attended some college and only 14 percent of students whose parents earned a bachelor’s degree, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Money is an issue, obviously, since parental lack of a college degree is highly correlated with low household income.

But there’s also no worn path to follow, leaving many first-timers without the benefit of family members who could show them the ropes of higher ed. It gets worse. There are 14 million working students enrolled in school, and about 6 million (43 percent) are low-income. Of these low-income students, 47 percent are first-generation college-goers, and 25 percent are Latino, according to the Georgetown CEW.

These students are more likely to be enrolled in certificate programs and attend two-year community colleges or for-profit colleges than higher-income working students.

And all of this leads to low-income working students being less likely to earn a credential overall.

First, we need to recognize that it’s nearly impossible to “work your way through college” like people in earlier generations did — the average price of an undergraduate degree has risen roughly 161 percent from $39,643 in 1987 to $103,616 in 2016.

Second, these students of color who’ll be the first in their family to attend college need more scholarships, fellowships, grants, lower-interest loans and other financial supports, including counseling.

Don’t think there’s nothing in it for you.

The Georgetown CEW estimates that the U.S. takes an annual hit of about $400 billion in lost wages, plus costs of lost productivity, because every year approximately 500,000 students who are in the top half of their class simply don’t complete college.

A well-educated populace ready to fill high-tech jobs and other positions that require higher education helps businesses, surrounding communities and nearly everyone else.

Ultimately, we all benefit when disadvantaged young people are enabled to reach their potential — it’s really a little piece of the American dream for all of us.