Hispanicity and Educational Inequality: Risks, Opportunities and the Nation’s Future

Abstract

This report discusses the significance of the growing Hispanic presence through the lens of education. It also provides a demographic retrospective, which brings into focus several features that bear on the demand for education and contours of inequality. In addition, it describes the pace of population growth and diversification; the unprecedented generational transition; and aging of the majority White population. Subsequently, it displays a broad overview of recent educational trends and differentials, and discusses barriers and bottlenecks undergirding Hispanics’ underrepresentation in higher education. The concluding section discusses the social and economic significance of the burgeoning second generation.