First Lady Urges Latinos to Stay in School, Gain High-Tech Skills

Future demand for high-tech skills should compel Latinos to push for greater educational achievement, Hillary Rodham Clinton told the nation’s largest Latino civil rights group Monday.

“The 21st century will be ruthless,” the first lady said to the National Council of La Raza at its annual conference.

Citing statistics that show nearly a third of all Latino students drop out of high school, she said those numbers have to improve for the nation’s swiftly growing Latino community to share fully in the American dream.

“Education is so critical to fulfill that future,” she said. “It is the gateway to opportunity.”

A Census Bureau study released last week said Latino children have overtaken black youth as the nation’s largest minority child population and that Latinos will become the nation’s largest minority group overall within seven years.

The first lady said those figures presented “challenges and opportunities” for Latinos and the nation as a whole as it struggles to improve schools.

She recently completed a bus tour of several historic sites in the Northeast to focus attention on preserving them. She said she would ensure that “the efforts and accomplishments of Hispanic Americans” would also be highlighted “front and center.”

La Raza, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, will attract more than 12,000 community, business and government leaders for the four-day event.