by: John Rodriguez
The summer is close to an end and for many students who have enjoyed their time off they are prepping for the upcoming new school year, and according to a report released Monday a majority of those students are young Latinos who are gearing up for another semester at both public schools and colleges. According to the report made by the Pew Hispanic Center, young Latinos aged 18 to 24 years old are enrolled in colleges which an estimated 2 million having been enrolled since 2011. With the Latino community being on a growing trajectory as one of the rising communities in the country, the 16.5% of Latino enrollees is a just one sign of how the Latino community is in fact on the rise in the United States.
While there is a high, and growing, number of Latinos enrolled in college there is also record number of Latinos finishing college. With an estimated 112,000 earning their associate degrees and an estimated 140,000 earning their bachelor’s degree, the report adds that while the statistics on Latinos acquiring an education is attaining new highs they still are behind the number of both Black and White graduates.
Even though Latinos may not rank as high as other groups in the U.S. the numbers gathered and the growing trend still shows growth in the community. “Some of the growth in Hispanic college enrollments simply reflects continued to growth in the nation’s Hispanic population-since 1972, the number of Hispanics 18 to 24 year-olds has grown nearly five-fold, rising from 1.3 million then to 6 million in 2011,” the report stated.
In 2011 there was a percentage of 76% of Latinos age 18 to 24 who had completed high school, a percentage which has risen a total 3.5% from the estimated Latinos who attained a high school degree in 2011. These findings outside of the Latinos enrolled in college shows significant progress in the community regarding Latinos and their educational pursuit. From pre-kindergarten to 12th grade level of high school the report states Latinos made up 23.9% of the students attending school.
The numbers collected from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Education’s Digest of Education Statistics forecasts that Latinos will embody the nation’s 3 to 17 year old children living in the country by 2036, the report states. These estimations show that on American campuses Latinos are the growing minority which shows a growing divide amongst the group and African-American enrollees. Since 2011, Latino enrollment into four-year colleges jumped from 1 million in 2010 to 1.2 million in 2011 while Black enrollment has stayed at a steady 1.1 million.
The report added, that while the number shows progression of one group over the other, Latino students have been outpacing Black students in the student population for years. The outpacing has been recorded since the mid-70s. In 1975, when a total of 6.94 million adults went to college after completing high school, among the total 309,000 were Latino and 655,000 were Black. However, thirty years later when the number went from 6.94 million to 10.83 million of college enrollment 1.22 million were Latino enrollees and 1.3 million were Black. In 2001, Latinos topped Black enrollment.
While the report shows the growth of the Latino community in universities it does not show eligibility or financial disadvantage some Latinos face after when attempting to enroll into college after completing high school. Still, the report does support the claim that over the next few decades the Latino community is on the move from become the largest minority group to possibly the future majority in this country.
