“We want there to be action, so we thought we would put on paper things that are actionable,” says Deborah A. Santiago, Excelencia’s vice president for policy and research. “So our work is not done with the report — we have an engagement strategy that will take us, we think, to another action level.
The group has already scheduled meetings with California State University officials, the California Legislature’s Latino caucus and the University of California regents. Santiago says she’s been contacted by officials from Florida and New Mexico interested in learning more about the study.
John Moder, the spokesman for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, says, “The issue is really a national one, of whether we’re going to have an educated work force in the coming generation or not. I keep recalling a Department of Labor estimate that, by 2020, one out of two new workers is going to be Hispanic. If we don’t do a better job of addressing higher education issues for Hispanics, and for minorities in general, we’re going to wind up with an undereducated work force in a generation.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
