Sec. 2. Findings
396 words·~2 min read·
/bill/118/s/2813/is/section-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds the following: Hispanics and Latinos are the largest, youngest, and second-fastest growing minority population in the United States, accounting for half of the Nation’s population growth between 2010 and 2020. While Hispanics and Latinos compose 18 percent of the population of the United States, they compose 26 percent of the prekindergarten through grade 12 public school student enrollment in the United States. Over 3,300 local educational agencies have 25 percent or more Hispanic and Latino enrollment and those local educational agencies enroll 78 percent of all prekindergarten through grade 12 Hispanic and Latino students in the United States.
Hispanic and Latino students face disparities in educational outcomes, including lower grades, lower scores on standardized tests, and higher dropout rates. Hispanic and Latino students tend to face greater barriers once in college than their non-Hispanic and Latino peers. Seventy percent of Hispanic and Latino college students are first-generation college students and nearly half of Hispanic and Latino college students are eligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant. Hispanics and Latinos have less access to enrolling in, or graduating from, institutions of higher education.
More Hispanics and Latinos are going to college than ever before, but only slightly more than half of the Hispanic and Latino students who enroll earn a bachelor’s degree. Hispanics and Latinos lag behind non-Hispanic Whites, Blacks, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islanders in educational attainment of high school diplomas, associate’s degrees, and bachelor’s degrees. In 2019, the median weekly earnings among high school graduates with no postsecondary degree were lower than such earnings for individuals holding associate’s degrees by $123, and for individuals holding bachelor’s degrees by $635.
Given this information, and the growth in the Hispanic and Latino population relative to the nearly stagnant population growth of the Nation as a whole, gains in Hispanic and Latino educational attainment are crucial to economic gains for the United States. Hispanics and Latinos are an increasingly vital component of the workforce of the United States. The number of Hispanics and Latinos in the labor force is expected to grow by approximately 6,900,000 between 2020 and 2030. To help ensure that the United States is prepared to meet the needs of its changing workforce, Hispanics and Latinos and the institutions that enroll them most, Hispanic-serving institutions, must be afforded the resources and support necessary to close the achievement and opportunity gaps.