This is a status report on the education of Latinos in five states in the Southwest (four of which are contiguous to the border of Mexico): Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. This report is intended to provide a snap shot of the current educational conditions and circumstances for Latino youth. While the report does not include comprehensive educational indicators, the condition has not changed significantly over the past 20 years. However, due to the large increase in the Latino population and its projected future growth, the problem is greatly aggravated and more importantly, must be solved in order to create a brighter future for this country.

The report is written primarily for policy makers--specifically state legislators--and secondarily for K-12 school board members, community college trustees, and university regents. The hope and intent is that these data will awaken policy makers to the continuing need and necessity for urgent action. Hopefully, future policies that are drafted, discussed, and enacted will be commensurate to the challenge of reversing the ever-growing, dire condition and will acknowledge its danger to the future. It is our belief that with good information and awareness, new policies will be embraced that not only reverse the negative trends we observe, but target the root causes of educational discrimination, neglect, and insufficient past actions.

The report team acknowledges that the data cited herein comes from multiple sources. Because different sources were used, years of data collection vary. While researchers would recognize some misgivings to such a data set, there is also a benefit. These various data, reported by different agencies at different times, are consistent. That is, data found in other reports and policy documents and presented herein match up well, providing indirect face validity and reliability. No matter where the data comes from or how it is presented or compared, the distressing message of the alarming state of education for Hispanic youth remains the same.

This report is not so much about the "numbers" as much as what is behind the numbers. Any number of databases could be used to illustrate the details of the state of education for Hispanic youth. The writers of this report are, quite frankly, more concerned with "the bigger picture" of policy issues than the statistical facts and figures. With this report we are trying to envision a new, better picture for the future of Hispanic youth in America.

Leonard A. Valverde
Executive Director
Hispanic Border Leadership Institute