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Study: Southwest states trail national average for Latinas with university degrees

UCLA says the number of Latina adults who earned at least a bachelor’s degree grew steadily during the first 21 years of this century.

But the final percentage in each Southwest border state came in below the national rate.

Nationwide, 20% of Latinas nationwide held a bachelor’s degree or higher as of 2021, according to UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.

In Arizona, 16% of Latinas had a university diploma — equal to California, but trailing Texas and New Mexico.

The report's authors found that only one in 10 Latinos who were not citizens got a degree.

Undocumented people in Arizona were banned from paying in-state college tuition for most of the period studied. Arizona voters have since approved in-state college tuition for certain noncitizens.

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Matthew Casey has won Edward R. Murrow awards for hard news and sports reporting since he joined KJZZ as a senior field correspondent in 2015.