On June 16, the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) hosted a national media conference call to release and discuss its report, “Federal Higher Education Policy Priorities and the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community.” The report was written by CARE with support from the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), which also participated in the conference.
The report dispels the myth that Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students are universally high achieving and do not need to be part of higher education policy discussions. In fact, large sectors of the AAPI population experience low high school graduation rates, high enrollment in community colleges, and underrepresentation in certain sectors of the workforce. Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders suffer unemployment and poverty rates three to five times higher than those of other AAPI subgroups. ♦