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Let鈥檚 be straight when we talk about why it is men of color aren鈥檛 graduating from college.

It鈥檚 true, as this week鈥檚 , that just one in four African-American or Native-American men, and one in five Latino men, hold an associate鈥檚 degree or higher. But how can we be surprised about this outcome when boys of color attend public schools ? Since Brown v. Board of Education officially ended racial segregation in schools, white flight to private schools combined with residential segregation . The way we finance schools concentrates funding in wealthy communities, which dooms poor children, often children of color, to attend schools severely lacking in resources.

The College Board鈥檚 report documents the alarming disparity in the graduation rate of young men of color when compared with their white male and minority female peers (educational attainment is higher for women within every racial group). The report explores these gaps at the high school and college levels, but it fails to examine and explain the root of the problem.

The urban school districts across the country that are responsible for educating huge numbers of children of color are, in many cases, collapsing. In Detroit, for example, a budget that would cut teacher salaries by 10 percent across the board in an attempt to reduce class size to a still-outrageous 30 students per elementary school classroom. In New York City, where African-American and Latino students comprise 82 percent of public school students, the New York Times that public high schools that earn 鈥淎鈥� grades from the Department of Education still graduate many students who are not prepared for college-level work.

Thinking about why men of color don鈥檛 graduate from college in the numbers we would like them to without considering the boys trapped in these failing systems misses a crucial piece of the story.

What鈥檚 worse, in many places, boys of color spend their school days being treated like potential criminals. Major cities like New York increasingly rely on police to maintain classroom discipline, and many employ a 鈥渮ero-tolerance鈥� policy resulting in arrests of children for infractions as minor as having rap lyrics in their locker. Despite evidence that these policies do not make schools safer, as documented in a , overpolicing persists . The College Board report notes the 鈥渁larming鈥� fact that, of the 18- to 24-years olds in jail or prison, 42 percent are African-American, and 23 percent are Latino (although they make up just 7 percent and 8 percent of the population, respectively). But these statistics don鈥檛 reflect the unjust reality inside our public school systems, which all too often push young men of color toward the criminal justice system instead of toward college.

So, let鈥檚 add two recommendations to the College Board鈥檚 report: 1) Ensure that all schools have the resources they need to provide a quality education to all children; and 2) Eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline that funnels children out of the public school system into the criminal justice system. Instead of treating men and boys of color as delinquents and future dropouts, let鈥檚 invest in dismantling the structural barriers that continue to prevent them from achieving their full potential.