The Things We Care About

In the September issue of Hispanic Magazine a feature artcile was writen about the things we care about as Latinos. Those issues were the following:

Education
Imigration Reform
The Economy and Jobs
Healthcare
The Housing Crises

The peice goes on to describe education the following way:

Whether the issues in the controversial No Child Left Behind Act, underpaid teachers, or even safey in schools, education is always one of the top concerns for Americans of all walks of life.

Not surprisingly, Hispanics have placed this issue at the top of their concerns, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center. In the survey, 93 percent of respondents said that education was either extremely or very important and rated as the top issue even when compared with other such issues such as the economy, cost of living, the war in Iraq and immigration, among others. Plus Hispanics answered that they would be most likely to vote for a candidate who put education at the top of their priority list.

In 2005, NCLR reports that Hispanics made up 19 percent of the nation's elementary and high school population.

Even though the number of Hispanic students is growing, a significant percentage do not graduate from high school, and in some areas the drop-out rate is close to half. This leaves thousands of Hispanics with limited employment prospects and little chance of becoming high-income earners.

Add to that the fact that more than 40 percent of Hispanic students have some sort of English-language proficiency need or are in an English-language learner program, and the issues become more clouded. As more young people leave school before these skills are learned, they could be intering adulthood without the necessary language skills to navigate out of the underserved Spanish-speaking United States.

Lack of education spills into other areas: those with limited education are less likely to have a regular physician, among other things.

At the same time, the Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education reports that the number of Latino public high school graduates will rise by more than half (54 percent), as non-Hispanic white graduate decline. This means that more Latinos will graduate from high school than non-Hispanic whites.

As Latinos/Hispanics working in higher education do you agree with the description and the other issues that the magazine identtifies? It would be great to hear from you.

You blogmaster Joel.