Census: Latino school, college enrollment grows

Census data released today showed steady growth in Latino school and university enrollment nationwide.

According to the AP, the Census information from 2007 revealed that Latinos:

• make up approximately 25% of kindergartners with most of them being born in the U.S.;
• are roughly 20% of all K-12 students though in several western states (e.g. Arizona, California) they make up at least 40%;
• form 12% of all full-time undergraduate and graduate students, up from 10% in 2006.
  

What does this mean? For starters, the Latino youth of today will be the voting electorate of tomorrow. Education is already a very important concern to the Latino community and should be more so in the future. Thus, the debate over No Child Left Behind laws and federal college aid may soon heat up. Language will also gain more prominence, especially whether to scrap or modify bilingual education classes. Lastly, it may force politicos to get their heads out of the sand and do something useful on immigration reform.

What do you think?

Image- WNCT
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, AP, UPI