From the school-to-prison pipeline beginning in preschool to missed college and career readiness in middle school, reporters and experts explain how early childhood and K-12 education shapes men of color’s postsecondary experiences.
Photo credits: Monkeybusinessimages/Bigstock; James Minichello for EWA
Medical training in Texas provides a snapshot of something happening in the United States when it comes to Black and Latino men: They aren’t going to college in droves.
The school-to-prison pipeline starts as early as preschool for Black and brown boys, with harsh punishments that set them up for failure, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. And starting as early as middle school, men of color aren’t always being placed on a trajectory to fill a booming job market that promises to grow nationwide or leaves gaping holes.
Reporters Jacob Sanchez and Matthew Sgroi helped paint a picture of some of the obstacles affecting men of color, particularly Black and Latino men, when getting a college education. Their Fort Worth Report coverage was supported by an Education Writers Association reporting fellowship.
Sgroi said he wondered why few Black and Latino men were making it into medical careers amid a staffing shortage in North Texas. In 2025, the area was estimated to be short 3,000 doctors, with nearly half of primary care needs expected to be unmet by 2036, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. In 2024, more than 68,000 people applied to Texas medical schools; 3% were Latino men, and 1.2 % were Black men, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
“Why weren’t some men [going to college]? And we thought, ‘Oh, we can just focus on the higher ed side,’” Sanchez said. “But really, the issues aren’t just at the higher ed side; it’s in the K-12 side too.”
The two journalists spoke during a session on men of color at EWA’s 2026 National Seminar in June. In addition to sharing some perspectives from that panel, this reporting resource includes additional expert insights and original reporting to help journalists understand the challenges men of color face getting through college. (One of those obstacles is a lack of mentorship. Read a related reporting resource.)
Historically, structural racism has affected the success of Black medical students.
When examining the lack of Black and Latino doctors in North Texas, Sanchez and Sgroi found that middle school students lacked role models and examples for the careers that they wanted to go into, but when given early access to them, they had significant interest.
They also found that Texas middle schoolers who accessed advanced science and math classes in high school had taken Algebra I by eighth grade. Not all students and families understood the choices available to them, the Fort Worth Report journalists showed.
Research also demonstrates that students of color get placed in remedial, non-college track classes at an early age. In turn, they lack access to advanced placement math and science classes.
Another issue is the school-to-prison pipeline, where harsher discipline and suspension for boys of color throw them off the college course as early as preschool.
“There’s just this weed out effect all the way through the pipeline to where you get very few guys who actually make it to college and actually complete college once they get in,” said Frank Harris, San Diego State University professor of postsecondary education. Harris has studied this phenomenon for years and published research. “It starts with access,” he said.
Black and Latino men also feel pressure from family members to join the workforce earlier than their peers. And, for those who do opt for college, they often report not feeling supported when they get there.
“There’s pressure on men in general, but also for men of color to get into the workforce as fast as possible,” Harris said. “Maybe they have dependents and people that are relying on them to earn money and to be able to support the family.”
Harris said that this thought represents a disconnect that leaves men of color feeling like working and earning money is better suited for them than being in an academic context. “With school, maybe they don’t always sort of feel a sense of belonging or feel like that’s where they should be, or where their time is best spent,” he explained.
Additionally, there has been a generational shift from when college was more affordable, more favorably looked upon and families pushed young men into it as a gateway to more upward mobility, Harris said.
Some of the onus on why men of color don’t feel like they belong falls on colleges. Harris said. He added that schools don’t provide proper support for men of color once they’re on campus.
“Even with open access [at community colleges], it’s still difficult for guys to complete an associate degree or to even transfer,” he explained.
Access is tougher for university entry points, Harris said. Four-year universities cost more and require higher GPAs.
Colleges have failed in their messaging, Harris said; they’re not doing enough to explain the value of completing degrees and how that relates to lifetime earnings.
“We’ve allowed the conservative right to take over the messaging,” Harris said, “and really say that all higher education does is put you in debt; you don’t learn anything, and you don’t gain anything that’s of value.”
When President Donald Trump took office during his second term in January 2025, he issued an executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion across entities that receive federal funding. He vowed to end DEI, and he proceeded to pressure schools and universities to end programs that supported DEI. A broad retreat from DEI soon followed.
The results have included the cancellation of scholarships to help people of color pay for school and suspended research for scholars of color. Their research helps determine where public dollars should go to fund important policy, including health care outcomes, such as Black maternal health.
Federal grant applications or contracts using “racism” or “discrimination” in them were flagged for additional review. The Trump administration’s actions to end racial diversity have also led to universities rolling back commitments to increase faculty of color.
Students and faculty report not feeling welcomed on campuses across the country. Black Studies programs have been shut down, and multicultural centers doors’ were shuttered, taking away meeting places for student-of-color affinity groups.
Royel Johnson wants reporters to change the way that they write about men of color in college. Nuance is missing, said Johnson, who teaches at the University of Southern California. Johnson also spoke on the 2026 National Seminar panel on men of color in June.
He said he wished that more coverage would be spent dispelling harmful messaging, such as those coming from the manosphere.
The manosphere is an online world that defines masculinity for men, creates harmful grievances and elevates hustle culture and grinding above education.
The United Nations’ organization dedicated to promoting gender equality, UN Women, has highlighted the harmful effects of the manosphere and called on the media to pay more attention to it. Some media have reported on its harmful effects as it relates to indoctrinating young men online.
“This content plays directly to young men’s anxieties about their economic future, but it also gives them a story that the path to status isn’t a degree; it’s the hustle; it’s side income, the grind, and it also frames college as a waste of time, and that the system is rigged against them,” Johnson warned.
“This is a powerful pull factor that I think not enough coverage is engaged in,” Johnson said, “and I’d love to see more about these manosphere messages in relation to college-going decisions.”
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