College seems out of reach to most Latinos

The San Francisco Chronicle cites statistics on Latinos and higher ed and the impact on California’s economy:

• Only 1 in 7 California Latinos who graduate from high school after four years completed the courses required to enroll in a four-year college, according to the California Department of Education.
• Only 13 percent of U.S.-born Latinos in California have a bachelor’s degree, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California
• The statistics for blacks are similar to those of Latino students, but the societal impact is less broad. Blacks make up 8 percent of the state’s public-school students, while Latinos represent 48 percent.

“It’s in Silicon Valley’s best interest that all of our students, with a huge emphasis on Latino students, get engaged in and excited about math, science and technology at an early age,” said Carl Guardino, chief executive officer of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “To the extent we fail, Silicon Valley fails.”

The question this blogger wonders is this – what is the call to action? How will the state, educators and parents come together and focus on the crisis in Latino education? The crisis in education in California is really a crisis in Latino education – just look at the numbers and the demographics. The inadequacies and shortcomings of Latino education have always been there – the high school graduation rate for Latinos was a disgrace in my father’s day. The only difference between then and now is scale.