Helping Latinos Acquire College Degrees

Educating more Latinos might help put the United States on a faster track toward a stronger economy. Many in this recession have linked a college or university education with an improved economy and, therefore, a stronger nation, according to an educational organization. Latinos are among the populations that this organization, the Lumina Foundation for Education, plans to target to increase the number of Americans with an associate's degree or better.

The Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation works to improve access to higher education and success with it. As employers increasingly seek out skilled and knowledgeable workers - and pay them well for their services - a wage gap is growing and low skills jobs are beginning to vanish, the foundation notes. By 2025, the Lumina Foundation wants 60 percent of Americans to hold an associate's degree or better, which is nearly 23 million college or university graduates more than anticipated.

States are important in that they set policies that can help achieve the goal of increasing the number of people with associate's degrees or higher, according to a video conversation between Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of the Lumina Foundation, and Dewayne Matthews, the foundation's policy and strategy vice president. The men discussed whether that goal might be reached more quickly by narrowing in on some states. In terms of Latinos, the group ¡Excelencia in Education! has focused heavily on Florida.

Information from the US Census Bureau shows that more than 21 percent of Florida's 18.5 million or so residents are Hispanic, as compared with less than 16 percent of the 307 million people nationwide. Deborah Santiago, Excelencia's vice president for policy and research, attributed an emphasis on the state to leaders who get involved and a community that, focused on the issues facing Latinos, takes action. In a speech at a college in Miami-Dade County, she cited positives in terms of the state's 2+2 program, Bright Futures scholarships and its data system.

But while Latinos in Florida tend to have more of an education than their counterparts in other states, their percentage is still lower than the average for all populations in Florida, Santiago said. In Florida, where there are large numbers of Cubans and an influx of families from Puerto Rico, Mexico and other Latin American countries, she added, there are also increasing numbers of potential students from low-income families who are among the first in their families to attend colleges or universities. What's more, the state's K-12 Latino student population, currently at 25 percent, is expected to grow to 36 percent by 2018, according to Santiago.

After working with elected officials and representatives of colleges and universities, community organizations and more, Santiago recommended supplying new mothers in hospitals packets of information on how to prepare and pay for college and university studies and offering a middle school course with similar information. She also recommended enlisting help from "promotoras," or promoters - Latinos with college- or university-educated children who could reach out and help others who haven't had experience with higher education.

Additional suggestions included increasing financial needs-based tuition assistance; providing students with information about private scholarships that can help them to pay for college; creating a coordinated plan to make sure that colleges and universities are prepared to handle Latino student population growth; investing in Hispanic serving institutions to make sure that they provide quality academics and services; marketing the programs of institutions that are effectively working with Latino students; and creating a community wide campaign with a college and university completion goal and plans for reaching it.