Latinos currently make up 25% of school children and will become a third of the US population by 2050. Yet, educational equity is still out of reach for 5.4 million Latino students. Latinos For Education is a non-profit organization whose mission is to develop, place and connect essential Latino leaders in the education sector. They believe that the Hispanic community should be better represented in leadership positions, leaders who could advocate, drive policies and work alongside Latino students and families for their collective empowerment. The first annual State of Latino Education summit convened virtually, from October 5th through October 7th. This year’s theme was Reclaiming the Promise of Educational Equity.
The summit covered Early Childhood Education, Higher Education and Educator Diversity, and adequate COVID19 response for the Latino community. Amanda Fernandez, CEO and founder of Latinos for Education, said in her introduction that “the theme of reclaiming the promise of educational equity is more relevant now than ever as this promise has been threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and as we know, only exacerbated the inequities we were already seeing”. The Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, pledged to listen to the group and offered to partner in improving for Latino students’ educational opportunities.
COVID-19 was identified as the common factor affecting the three main topics, Early Child Education, Higher Education and Educator Diversity. As all three aspects have been increasing in recent years, they experienced a steep decrease in 2020. Latinos for Education compromised in publishing research and proposing policies to address the deficit. The topic of boosting financial assistance was also a resounding theme, with focus group members presenting a host of solutions, including doubling the value of the Pell grant, extending the benefit to DACA students, identifying provisions for student loan forgiveness programs, and streamlining the FAFSA application and process.
Addressing the lack of educator diversity, focus group contributors identified several potential solutions to enhance efforts to diversify the workforce. “We need to get into the room where decisions are being made regarding the direct impact is going to have on us or our students…There has to be an easy way for us to get to the microphone and advocate on behalf of our students and our colleagues”, said one of the members.
The summit ended with a well-deserved award ceremony, celebrating those Latino educators who impact students and families. The organization hopes that the information will help design the Latino Action Agenda that Latinos For Education will pursue in 2022.
