At college, the Latino graduation rate is 13% lower than that of the white population, not including those who never reach community college or higher education.
“Many Latino students don’t finish their college careers for many reasons, and many have to deal with someone who guides them, who knows the system and tells them this is what to do,” said Angie del Barco, an SFSU student.
California Senator Alex Padilla introduced a bill called the “Here Act” that would create a federal grant program to provide targeted support to universities that have more than 25% of their students are Latino, as well as high schools and high schools.
“Creating programs that reinforce what we already know works, but sometimes our schools simply don’t have enough resources to offer these programs,” said Erica Romero, spokeswoman for Latinos for Education.
For example, creating a “go to college” culture would be strengthened.
“We have to give them the expectation that they will go to university. What happens is that a lot of our young people don’t aspire to it at first,” said Antonio Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Universities.
Second, resources would be expanded so that more advisors would be available to provide in-depth support.
“The reality is that when we have counselors, we don’t have counselors who are taking action to seriously help students,” said Oliver Elias Tinoco, an SFSU student.
Additionally, the grants would strengthen resources and tools to obtain financial support.
