Latino Education Affordability is the Future of the U.S. Labor Force
By Susana G. Baumann, Voxxi
A projected 37.6 million or 80 percent of the 47 million new workers entering the labor force in the next four decades will be of Hispanic origin. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment rate for Hispanics (9.7 percent) is still higher than the national average for whites (6.8 percent) mostly due to disadvantages in schooling.
Is everything harder for young Latinos looking to build their future through a higher education?
A hot topic in the national arena, affordability of higher education is even hotter for some groups like Dreamers and other Latino students, especially because interest rates on student loans are expected to skyrocket—doubling in next July.
College tuition has mushroomed as well. According to ScholarshipExperts.com, a free scholarship search service, the average tuition and fees charged by both private and public U.S. four-year colleges and universities combined has risen 7.1 percent annually since 1981.
So how do young Latinos, expected to become the U.S. qualified labor force of the 21st century, afford a higher education?
Job opportunities versus a higher education
“Our Hispanic population is very diverse all throughout the country, and levels of education, training and opportunities are diverse as well,” Dr. Ricardo Romo, President of The University of Texas (UT) at San Antonio told VOXXI. “In our region, for instance, the oil industry has generated over 60 billion in revenue and spent more than 20 billion in creating infrastructure and thousands of jobs but has also attracted young people who go to work in the oil fields right after high school.”
According to Dr. Romo, this is a good problem to have due to the economic impact that the oil industry has had on the South Texas economy. The increase of natural gas and oil production in the Eagle Ford Shale has created a vast economic footprint with revenues reaching $61 billion, more than double the output of 2011 at $25 billion, according to a study by the Center for Community and Business Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio Institute for Economic Development.
With a Hispanic population at almost 40 percent, young Tejanos and Latinos in South Texas are attracted to job opportunities that can pay considerable salaries such as almost $80K for a truck driver position in the oil fields. Can they be blamed?
“I compare the oil rush to the ‘Gold Rush,’ when workers came to the West to get rich but the reality was that most did not do well. These are just well-paid jobs but not a long-term opportunity,” Dr. Ricardo Romo affirmed.
The UT President believes higher education is the only guarantee to increase opportunities for good jobs, a fact proven year after year in higher education reports.
College affordability versus better educational outcomes
While community colleges and state universities seem to be the right choice for affordability, obtaining a better education and a network that will help young Latinos reach qualified jobs in C-suites and political representation requires a considerable amount of money.
Dr. Romo believes that when there is passion in getting an education, there are no obstacles or excuses. “Some people don’t get in debt, some people get jobs while in college,” he said.
But with college tuition at a range of over $40K or $50K yearly at the best universities around the country, juggling a job and demanding school assignments can be a daunting task.
“Let’s face it, from a realistic point of view, not everybody has to go to college. One of the main discussions in higher education circles around students opting between community colleges and long-term colleges,” Dr. Ricardo Romo concedes.
Of course there are ways that can be used to reduce college tuition but not every Latino student and their parents are aware of such opportunities. So how can financial aid policies help ensure that more Hispanics have a chance to attend college and stay in college until they graduate?
What needs to be done
The UT President believes an important first step was President Obama’s Student Aid Financial Responsibility Act (SAFRA) in 2010, which takes private loans subsidies to boost the Pell Grant program.
“But we also need to start at an earlier stage,” he said. “Our challenge and our struggle as a society are to place education as a priority. We recently had $4 billion in cuts for the K-12 education budget in the state of Texas, which certainly does not help.”
Dr. Romo, who moderated the President’s panel at the 2013 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education conference, shared some of the participants’ recommendations. “First, we need to do more to get younger generations to a pre-elementary education very early,” he said.
Studies show that students achieve at higher levels and better in the long-term when they start school at a very young age, with long-lasting effects in school competence; developed abilities, attitudes and values; and impact on the family. Moreover, they are more likely to be employed, less likely to be incarcerated and can make larger and better contributions to their communities and the economy.
Recommendations also included increasing partnerships at federal, state and local levels to help students and educators accomplish their goals with additional resources. “It is especially important to include the business community and encourage their contribution to educational opportunities. After all, they will become these young students’ future employers,” Dr. Romo said.
Finally, communities need to come together, partner and help each other, not only the higher education communities but also the communities at large, increasing the number of Latinos in the pipelines trough programs such as Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success).
“Since I became President of UT, and for 13 years, I was the only Hispanic to head a large research institution such as this one,” he said.
The fifth president of UT at San Antonio—named by the Texas Legislature as an emerging Tier One research university—Dr. Romo was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Ricardo Romo graduated from Fox Tech High School and attended the University of Texas at Austin on a track scholarship.
He holds a master’s degree in History from Loyola Marymount University (1970) and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (1975). He is the author of “East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio”, and has received numerous recognitions and awards for his dedication to excellence in education.
Nearly 31,000 students are enrolled at UT San Antonio, representing 68 percent growth in student registration since Dr. Romo took office. Under his leadership, the university has added a number of programs and facilities that has increased total research expenditures to $56.8 million and total expenditures to $79.4 million for fiscal year 2011, a six-fold increase during Romo’s tenure.
This article was first published in Voxxi.
Susana G Baumann is the Director of LCSWorldwide. A multicultural expert, a business blogger & a published author. Booklist Online calls her book “Hola, amigos! A Plan for Latino Outreach” a “centerpiece of the publisher’s Latinos and Libraries series.”
[Photo by James Almond]
