What is the single biggest obstacle facing Hispanic higher education today?
Flores: When you consider our country’s demographic trends and projections, if we don’t dramatically reverse years of neglect in educating Hispanics, we will be in trouble as a nation. A growing proportion of the U.S. labor force is represented by Hispanics. That is a well-accepted fact by demographers, politicians, and corporate leaders. Yet, the educational investments are not forthcoming to provide resources to schools and teachers to prepare students for long-term success. We need a policy breakthrough that will translate into those necessary investments because, from a global standpoint, we can’t afford to fail in this area. Ultimately, it’s not about our nation’s Hispanic community getting further behind, but about our nation falling behind. Arroyo: What is the first step toward increasing student success? Flores: The first step is to ensure that students make it through K-12. About half of Latinos in this country never graduate from high school. So one of the best ways higher ed
