WASHINGTON — In response to the booming Latino student population across the country, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) is encouraging concerted collaboration between Hispanic-serving higher education institutions and public school systems to increase the numbers of Hispanics advancing from preschool to graduate school.
At HACU’s 15th Annual National Capitol Forum in Washington, more than 150 representatives from Hispanic-serving institutions [HSIs] and others convened to identify ways to improve Latino student achievement at the elementary and secondary level that will expand the pipeline for Hispanic students entering community colleges and universities.
The Pew Hispanic Center has reported that about 1 of 5 U.S. public school students in the K-12 system is Latino. Yet by senior year of high school, almost half of Hispanic students never receive their diplomas.
Abysmal dropout rates in the last three decades have limited the advancement opportunities of a population that is estimated to become the majority of the nation’s labor force in less than 50 years, HACU officials said.
“There has to be a number of targeted efforts to our communities in the direction of putting more emphasis on K-12 and higher education cooperation,” said HACU President Antonio Flores. “For us, it’s a detrimental separation that is the usual American way.”
The population estimates are a rallying point for HACU officials, who have watched migration and birth rates drive Latino population growth and dispersion. Census estimates predict that by 2050, 19 million more children will comprise the school-age population. Of that growth, 17 million are expected to be Hispanic; in 2007, there were more than 11 million school-age Hispanic children in the U.S., according to Census data.
With those numbers in hand, HACU officials are knocking on congressional doors on Capitol Hill Tuesday lobbying for extended educational and work-force access opportunities for Latino youth.
