Five Points from Secretary Arne Duncan on Latinos and Education

By Suzanne Gamboa, NBCNews

 On Thursday President Barack Obama will launch an initiative geared toward young men and boys of color to improve their chances for success. Education Secretary Arne Duncan sat down with reporters who cover Latinos issues, including NBC, and discussed the “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative and other topics.

“Our young men of color face some significant challenges that we need to address forthrightly, honestly in a comprehensive manner and give better outcomes,” Duncan said.

A quarter of today’s public school population is Latino and that share is growing as the population expands.There has been encouraging news on Hispanics and education. The dropout rate for Latinos, although high, has been cut in half, dropping from 28 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2011. In 2012, a greater percentage of Hispanic high school graduates went to college than white high school graduates. Even so, challenges remain, with just 15 percent of Latinos 25 to 29 years old holding a college degree.

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