Washington, DC (July 19, 2007) – Today, Congressman Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX), chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education, applauded the passage of critical legislation that increases the educational opportunities for Hispanic students around the nation. The 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill—which the House of Representatives approved this evening—appropriates $151.7 billion in critical funding for health, education, and science research programs.
The bill also includes increased support for Hispanic education priorities including migrant education, English language learners, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Even Start Family Literacy, GEAR UP, and TRIO. It reverses past trends of eliminating, cutting, or at best flat-lining key programs that provide the pillars of educational support to the Hispanic community.
“I am particularly heartened to see the commitment in this bill to increasing educational opportunities for Hispanic students,” said Hinojosa. “Hispanic students are now one in five of our school-aged population. Investing in their future is an essential investment in our nation’s prosperity.”
More than 40 million Hispanics live in the United States, accounting for 38 percent of the nation’s overall population growth for the decade. Yet Hispanics continue to have the lowest levels of education attainment of any group in the country. In the 1999-2000 academic year, Hispanics earned only 6 percent of the bachelor’s degrees, 4 percent of the master’s degrees, and 3 percent of doctor’s degrees.
On top of a $1.5 billion increase to the core of No Child Left Behind for 2008, the bill includes over $212 million in increases to the other programs, including a long-overdue investment programs for English language learners.
“These increases mean schools will have more tools to improve instruction and assessment for English language learners. More Hispanic families will have access to literacy and English as a second language programs,” said Hinojosa. “Migrant students will have greater access to the support they need to fully participate in school. Hispanic-serving Institutions will have greater capacity to retain and graduate students.”
In addition, the bill contains significant increases in student financial aid as well as for GEAR UP and TRIO—two programs that help prepare low-income students to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. It makes college more affordable by increasing the maximum Pell Grant scholarship by $390, which builds on an increase of a $260 increase the Democratic-led Congress enacted in February. Currently, 37 percent of Pell Grant recipients are Hispanic.
“These investments make a difference. And they have not come a moment too soon,” noted Hinojosa. “Recent reports estimate that by the year 2025, just to keep pace with our international competitors, the United States would need to produce an additional 15.6 million college graduates. That translates to another 781,000 degrees per year. That is a tall order that we need to begin to address immediately.”