State’s economy needs more college-educated Latinos – California

California faces a major economic crisis: a shortage of four-year college graduates. The state stands to produce too few graduates to fuel its cutting-edge service economy, mainly because not enough Latinos attend and complete college.

In 2005-2006, one-half the students in California’s public schools were Latinos, but Latinos earned only about 15 percent of the 150,000 bachelor’s degrees awarded by all California colleges that year. As the student population of California becomes increasingly Latino, these numbers bode badly for the state’s economy.

The problem will not be easy to resolve. Many Latino students start out behind in kindergarten and never catch up. By the time they reach middle and high school, many bright Latino students are counseled by poorly trained school officials into low-level courses which are not in the academic track. Without family members who are savvy in navigating middle and high school choices, most Latino students never fulfill minimum course requirements for college. Many also attend high schools that don’t offer the honors and advanced placement courses now needed to attend the University of California.”*

*From: www.mercurynews.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

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