"WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, urged their colleagues to support a proposal from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) for record new funds for Hispanic college students and the campuses that serve them.
“We commend the bipartisan leadership and vision of Senators Bingaman and Hutchison on this issue of critical importance to the higher education hopes of the nation’s fastest-growing and youngest minority population,” said HACU President Antonio Flores. “We are grateful for this important support from two Senators who have proven long-time champions of the Hispanic community.”
Senators Bingaman and Hutchison, as co-chairs of the Senate Hispanic- Serving Institutions Coalition, urged support for a record $75 million appropriation to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in fiscal 2001 under Title V of the Higher Education Act.
HSIs are those campuses with a student enrollment that is at least 25 percent Hispanic. Currently, there are nearly 200 HSIs located throughout the country. HACU is the only nationally recognized association representing HSIs. HSIs received a $28 million Title V appropriation in fiscal 1999, and a $42.25 million Title V appropriation for fiscal 2000.
“Hispanics, and particularly Hispanic youth, are the fastest growing group of Americans. Yet despite the fact that Hispanic Americans represent 13 percent of the population aged 18 to 24, they comprise only 5.5 percent of the students enrolled in four-year institutions of higher education,” the two Senators wrote in a letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education of the powerful Senate Committee on Appropriations. The two Senators also cited high dropout rates still plaguing this population at the high school level.
“As a nation we simply cannot afford to have such a large and growing segment of our population go unprepared to face the economic challenges of the next century,” the Senators wrote. “Key to greater Hispanic enrollment in both higher and secondary education are Hispanic-Serving Institutions.”
Although HSIs represent less than 5 percent of all U.S. colleges and universities, these campuses are home to nearly half of all Hispanic higher education students. “However, many HSIs remain critically under-funded and lack the resources and infrastructure necessary to meet the growing demands of the communities they serve,” Senators Bingaman and Hutchison wrote in a letter addressed to both Subcommittee Chair Senator Arlen Spector, R-Pennsylvania, and to Subcommittee Ranking Member Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
Senators Bingaman and Hutchison are the founding co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Hispanic-Serving Institutions Coalition, which also includes as members 16 Senators from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Michigan, Arizona, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, California, Washington, New York and New Jersey.
HACU represents more than 240 colleges and universities (including HSIs) with high Hispanic student enrollment rates in the United States and Latin America. HACU’s legislative agenda for the current congressional session, in addition to the request for $75 million in Title V funding for HSIs, asks for increases in federal funding under several legislative acts and existing programs to enhance the success of Hispanic students from kindergarten through graduate school.
For more information about HACU, visit www.hacu.net.
HACU Media Contact: Janie Valenzuela, (210) 692-3805, ext. 3242."
“We commend the bipartisan leadership and vision of Senators Bingaman and Hutchison on this issue of critical importance to the higher education hopes of the nation’s fastest-growing and youngest minority population,” said HACU President Antonio Flores. “We are grateful for this important support from two Senators who have proven long-time champions of the Hispanic community.”
Senators Bingaman and Hutchison, as co-chairs of the Senate Hispanic- Serving Institutions Coalition, urged support for a record $75 million appropriation to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in fiscal 2001 under Title V of the Higher Education Act.
HSIs are those campuses with a student enrollment that is at least 25 percent Hispanic. Currently, there are nearly 200 HSIs located throughout the country. HACU is the only nationally recognized association representing HSIs. HSIs received a $28 million Title V appropriation in fiscal 1999, and a $42.25 million Title V appropriation for fiscal 2000.
“Hispanics, and particularly Hispanic youth, are the fastest growing group of Americans. Yet despite the fact that Hispanic Americans represent 13 percent of the population aged 18 to 24, they comprise only 5.5 percent of the students enrolled in four-year institutions of higher education,” the two Senators wrote in a letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education of the powerful Senate Committee on Appropriations. The two Senators also cited high dropout rates still plaguing this population at the high school level.
“As a nation we simply cannot afford to have such a large and growing segment of our population go unprepared to face the economic challenges of the next century,” the Senators wrote. “Key to greater Hispanic enrollment in both higher and secondary education are Hispanic-Serving Institutions.”
Although HSIs represent less than 5 percent of all U.S. colleges and universities, these campuses are home to nearly half of all Hispanic higher education students. “However, many HSIs remain critically under-funded and lack the resources and infrastructure necessary to meet the growing demands of the communities they serve,” Senators Bingaman and Hutchison wrote in a letter addressed to both Subcommittee Chair Senator Arlen Spector, R-Pennsylvania, and to Subcommittee Ranking Member Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
Senators Bingaman and Hutchison are the founding co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Hispanic-Serving Institutions Coalition, which also includes as members 16 Senators from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Michigan, Arizona, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, California, Washington, New York and New Jersey.
HACU represents more than 240 colleges and universities (including HSIs) with high Hispanic student enrollment rates in the United States and Latin America. HACU’s legislative agenda for the current congressional session, in addition to the request for $75 million in Title V funding for HSIs, asks for increases in federal funding under several legislative acts and existing programs to enhance the success of Hispanic students from kindergarten through graduate school.
For more information about HACU, visit www.hacu.net.
HACU Media Contact: Janie Valenzuela, (210) 692-3805, ext. 3242."