The US Census of 2020 shed light on the issue that the Hispanic population was the fastest growing demographic group and is most likely to reach 132 million by 2050 by some estimates. We believe this growth is an amazing sign of good things to come but we should also be aware of some of the challenges this highlights for our country and how we Hispanics can help this country move forward.

As of today, Hispanics in the US have one of the lowest rates of attainment of college education, this reflects language disparities, but also of the Hispanic’s willingness to roll our sleeves and engage in physically intensive jobs like construction and personal services.

Moving Hispanics and the country forward will take more than physical labor; it will also take brains as industries in the US become more and more knowledge based. The percentage of the total American population who had a college degree in 1940 was little over 5% and today is almost 32%, with Hispanics being  well below that at 15% and Asians overperforming at 54%.

Education has a big impact on people’s lives since it impacts wealth, home ownership, crime rates, and even marital status. Money can not buy happiness, but it can afford education which leads to happiness. Hispanics are very likely to engage in a big educational catch-up as they try to converge with the rest of the population and drive the percentage of Hispanics that have a college degree from 15% to 30%.

The Hispanic Education catch-up is a financial challenge as a group and as individuals given education in the US can be very expensive and many universities do not have admission quotas or scholarship quotas for Hispanics.