Opinion: Let’s do more than just celebrate the Latino community. Let’s invest in it
Each September we celebrate the influence and contributions of Latinos in the United States. We are educators and entrepreneurs, farmworkers and first responders, attorneys and artists– and so much more. These celebrations are particularly salient in the Inland Empire, where Latinos are now the majority of the population, 51.5%, according to the 2020 Census – and growing.
It shows that Latino educational attainment in the Inland Empire has increased in the last decade, with gains in both high school and college graduation rates. This is a promising trend. But it also shows that there is work to do to close the college graduation gap. Only 11% of Latinos in the region have a bachelor’s degree or higher, well below the state average of 35% and the national average of 33%.
Poverty rates are also much higher among Latinos in the Inland Empire and these gaps are even more stark when it comes to child poverty. Latino children in the Inland Empire are twice as likely as White children to live in poverty. This concerning data point suggests adverse and inequitable long-term consequences for the Latino community, absent significant investments and corrective policy solutions.
When it comes to civic participation, there’s room for improvement in terms of Latino voter turnout and representation. Only about 50% of eligible Latinos cast ballots in the 2020 November Presidential election, which past research has shown to be the result of insufficient investments in voter engagement and outreach–by parties, campaigns, and nonpartisan efforts alike.
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