Latin American pop star Shakira participates in a meeting of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics Commission. President Obama appointed the singer to the Commission on the basis of her extensive philanthropic work on this issue.
Latino youth are the fastest-growing group in America, and more Latino children are living in poverty than children of any other racial or ethnic group; one in four, that's 6.1 million Latino children living in poverty in the United States.
For a host of reasons, young Latinos in this country disproportionately drop out of school and far too few finish college. And as I have seen in my own philanthropic work, the only road out of poverty is education.
Investing in the educational achievement of this vulnerable population will not only help determine the economic future and competitiveness of this nation, but can serve as a model for the world. I am grateful to have an opportunity to support and inform such important work.
I hope that through my appointment to this commission, I will be able to share what I've learned through the 15 years I have been involved in the education of Latino children. As we all know, race and ethnicity shouldn't be factors in the success of any child.
It is my belief that if we provide early childhood education to Latino children who need it but cannot afford it, it will take less than a decade to reap the benefits. There will be fewer Latino students being held back, fewer who need special education at a later age, less crime involving school-age children, and a smaller achievement gap between Latino and White students.
Fonte: White House