Higher-education opportunities in Utah traditionally have been better than in some other states. But a new report shows that, for white students, those chances are slipping away, and for Latinos they are dismally few.

The national "Measuring Up" report from the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education gives Utah -- and all other states except California -- an "F" for affordability, based on the percentage of a family's income needed to finance a college education.

The average Utah family must pony up 21 percent of its total income to send a child to a four-year college, compared to 15 percent eight years ago. Poor and working-class families now must spend 28 percent of their income, even counting financial aid. And financial aid for needy students in Utah is puny. For every dollar in federal Pell Grant aid, the state spends only 8 cents.

That means fewer high school graduates, and only a tiny number of poor students, can afford a college education, and the state's declining enrollment rate supports that. The percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds in college in Utah slipped from 39 percent to 34 percent between 1999 and 2008. This generation could be the first to have fewer college graduates than its parents' generation.

The decline in the number of young Utahns enrolling in college will come back to bite us, and soon. Other developed and developing countries are increasing their college participation and could eclipse the United States in educating and training their youth. That means the U.S. could lose the edge in innovation and research that has kept this country proudly ahead of its competitors in science and business.

And the loss of potential among Latinos is a disgrace. The new survey found that 13 percent of Utah Latinos have a bachelor's degree, compared with 32 percent of whites. Even more astonishing is the report's statement that "if all racial and ethnic groups had the same educational attainment and earnings as whites, total annual personal income in the state would be about $2 billion higher."

But we continue to let Latino students slip through the cracks. Sixteen percent of Latinos age 18-24 are enrolled in college, compared with 45 percent of whites -- one of the largest gaps in the nation and evidence of an appalling neglect in Utah's public schools.

This is worse than shooting ourselves in the foot. We're shooting ourselves in the head.