Study Details Educational Challenges Facing U.S. Latino Community (from Hispanic Business)

I'm looking forward to reading this book.--Dr. Louie F. Rodriguez
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Study Details Educational Challenges Facing U.S. Latino Community


Dec 15 2008 1:50PM

Lydia Gil--EFE

In their forthcoming book, "The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies," two U.S. professors detail the educational challenges confronting this country's Latino community.

UCLA's Patricia Gandara and Frances Contreras of the University of Washington examine not only the causes but also the social and economic consequences of this worrying educational gap.

According to the study, Latinos, the country's biggest and fastest-growing minority, academically are being left behind at a dangerous rate.

One of the more worrying figures cited in the study is that while other ethnic minorities have managed to increase the percentage of their members who complete university studies, about half of Latino students don't even finish high school, a level that is similar to what it was three decades ago.

Upon consideration of the rapid widening of the income gap between those who have a university diploma and those who do not, one can appreciate why the researchers have called this crisis alarming and potentially devastating for the Latino community.

However, although the study is quantitatively rigorous, it does not limit itself to simply forecasting the crisis, but rather calls for action to change the trend in the figures.

The book indicates that, in contrast to other immigrant groups in the past, Latinos nowadays will not be able to easily exceed the social and economic status of their parents and grandparents.

According to the authors, U.S. society imposes conditions that exceed the ability of immigrants to overcome educational and socio-economic barriers.

They say, however, that the educational gap between Latinos and other groups is not completely related, nor even in large measure, to conditions linked to immigration, given that several recent studies concluded that bilingual or recently arrived students tend to come out better academically than Latinos born and raised in the United States.

The study says that nowadays, just one in every 10 Latinos obtains a university degree compared to one in four non-Hispanic whites and one in three Asian Americans.

These figures show that the graduation rate among Latinos has not increased in recent decades, which, added to the population increase among the Latino community, translates into a serious prognosis for the country's economy.

The authors provide as an example the state of California, where by 2020 it is expected there will be a 11 percent decline in per capita income if there is no intervention in favor of students poorly represented in the university system.

The call to action is urgent not only for California, but also for other states including Arizona and Texas, where Latinos comprise a high percentage of the population and where the inequalities in access to university education are mirrored.

According to the study, the statistics reflect a problem that goes beyond the faults in the educational system or the lack of resources there into the "American mythology" that with enough effort, everyone can achieve success in this country without regard to the circumstances they confront.

By not focusing exclusively on immigration, language, the lack of systemic resources or administration policy, Gandara and Contreras provide a comprehensive vision of the causes of educational disparity between the different ethnic groups in the United States and the challenges confronting the Latino community, in particular.