Look to HBCUs, not just flagship schools, to diversify professional talent pools

A recent Hechinger Report highlighted the persistent disparity between coveted admission to select state-supported flagship universities and the percentage of Black and Latinx high school graduates in those states. Admission to a flagship state university purportedly enhances career success opportunities based on prestige of the university as well as extraordinary educational opportunities both curricular and extracurricular available on these campuses. In Maryland at the College Park campus, the disparity was undeniably evident, a 24% difference between African American admission and African American high school graduation. Why is it critical to erase this disparity?