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By Gabriel Sanchez Zinny, Huffington Post Latino Voices

Amidst all of the election-year sniping, education reform never became a major issue in the 2012 presidential campaign. Even though both candidates released their competing proposals, the closest education came to center stage was a couple of sharp exchanges during the debates, quickly forgotten.

This is unfortunate, because the evidence on educational attainment, as demonstrated by recently released reports, including the important TIMSS and PIRLSS reading and math assessments, continues to show the extent to which America struggles in this area. Indeed, for all the debate over deficit reduction and national security, improving educational quality is one of the most critical challenges facing the U.S. if it hopes to maintain its international advantage in competitiveness and innovation.

While reform is reliably controversial, both left and right seem to agree that the Obama administration has introduced some important initiatives during its first term — most notably, the Race to the Top program that incentivizes state-level reforms while leaving states flexibility in implementation. There is also the School Improvement Grants program, which focuses on improving low-performing schools, and the Supportive School Discipline Initiative, which begins to reform school disciplinary practices that disproportionately send minority students into the criminal justice system — a dynamic known as the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

It is in this context that Latinos, in particular, should take interest in what the administration plans for the second term. In 2012, Latinos voted nearly 3 to 1 in favor of President Obama, despite their generalized disappointment over the stagnation of immigration reform legislation. And while immigration reform was a cornerstone of the president’s proposed agenda, Latinos should be at least as concerned, if not more, with the direction of educational policies that seek to shrink the so-called “achievement gap” between white and minority students.

This gap is large, and by many measurements growing. In nearly every educational indicator, Latinos (like African Americans) perform worse on average than white students. Nationwide, Latinos have a 31 percent dropout rate, a full 9 percent worse than average. They score consistently below average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams, and only 47.2 percent graduate from college, compared to 63 percent nationally. In some states, the numbers are even worse – in Minnesota, there is a 33 percent gap between the white and Latino high school graduation rates, and the District of Colombia had the second biggest gap, of 30 percent.

While the achievement gap is a problem in itself, it is also a key driver of economic inequality, and thus, a major threat to U.S. economic performance. American innovation and productivity — and, by extension, competitiveness in the global economy — has a lot to do with its human capital. According to Pew, a record 23 percent…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Gabriel Sanchez Zinny is the managing director at Blue Star Strategies, Washington, DC, where he focuses his expertise on Latin American and domestic related policy issues.

[Photo by The White House]

By Elise Foley, Huffington Post Latino Voices

WASHINGTON – Former President George W. Bush stressed the importance of immigration on Tuesday at a speech in Dallas, throwing himself back in the ring as the debate over reform heats up in Washington.

“Immigrants come with new skills and new ideas. They fill a critical part in our labor market. They work hard for a better life,” Bush said at the event, hosted by the George W. Bush Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

His brief speech introduced the groups’ conference, which focused on the need for immigration reform to bolster economic growth.

“Not only do immigrants help build our economy, they help invigorate our soul,” he said later in the speech.

Bush pushed during his second term for comprehensive immigration reform, with the help of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Elise Foley is a reporter for the Huffington Post in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at The Washington Independent.

[Photo screenshot courtesy Huff Post Live]

By Sarafina Wright and Amanda Terkel, Huffington Post Latino Voices

In the wake of his reelection to a sixth term as sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona, Joe Arpaio is ready to reach out to “the Hispanics” in the local community — who have generally not been a fan of the controversial official’s policies on immigration.

“I can get along great with the Hispanics,” he said in an interview with the Arizona Republic. “In fact, I sure would like to meet them, even the politicians, maybe in the back room or whatever, have a couple of beers and try to explain. But they need to understand that I enforce the laws. I want to listen to them and hear their problems. I want them to tell me what their problems are. Maybe we can come up with a solution.”

While Arpaio won his most recent election, he didn’t win overwhelmingly — 49.3 percent of the voters did not pick him — which may be why Arpaio is trying to show his “kinder, gentler” side. The long-time foe of undocumented immigration is…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo by DonkeyHotey]

By Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post Latino Voices

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced who will chair all of the major House committees in the next Congress. And it turns out they all have something in common besides party affiliation: they’re all white men.

There isn’t a single woman or minority included in the mix of 19 House committee chairs announced Tuesday – a stark reality for a party desperate to appeal to women and minorities after both groups overwhelmingly rejected Republicans just weeks ago in the presidential election. The one female committee chair that House Republicans currently have, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), is stepping down because her term is up. While there are still two lower-tier House committees awaiting a chair assignment — the Ethics Committee and House Administration — neither committee has any women or minority members.

At least one Senate Democrat was quick to point out that something is missing from the Republican lineup.

“Disappointed to see House committee chairmanships in the 113th Congress will not include a single woman. -PM,” tweeted Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who included a link to Boehner’s press release announcing the chair posts.

A House Republican leadership aide declined to comment on the lack of diversity in the party’s committee leadership. The aide noted, though, that GOP leaders just put four women in party leadership. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash) is the new House Republican Conference Chair, Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kansas) is conference vice chair, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) is conference secretary, and Rep.-elect Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) will represent freshman members in party leadership.

To be fair, House committee chairs are typically chosen based on their seniority on the committee, and most committees don’t have Republican women or minorities at senior levels. In addition, there just aren’t that many House Republican women and minorities to go around. In the 113th Congress, which kicks off in January, House Republicans will have 20 women in their camp, compared to 61 House Democratic women. You can count on two hands the number of House Republicans who are minorities. By contrast, in the new Congress, the House Democratic Caucus will have a majority of women and minorities for the first time in history.

Still, that doesn’t mean Republican leaders couldn’t have picked at least one woman or minority for a committee leadership post. Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), who is currently eighth in seniority on the House Homeland Security Committee, had a decent shot at taking over that committee. Instead, the chair post went to Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who is ranked fifth in seniority.

House Democratic leaders haven’t announced who will be the ranking Democrats on each of the committees, but they clearly dominate on the diversity front. Out of the 19 major House committees, as many as nine of the ranking Democrats are expected to be a woman or a minority. Among the more powerful posts: Either Rep. Nita Lowey (N.Y.) or Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) is poised to take the top Democratic slot on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) is expected to be the ranking Democrat on Financial Services and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who is African-American, who will keep his top slot on Judiciary.

A senior Democratic aide reveled in the fact that Republicans can’t seem to figure out how to diversify.

“One would think House Republicans would learn from their mistakes. But they have elected a roster of committee chairs that represent their ranks: old white men,” the aide said.

Boehner announced his new chairmen after the House Republican Steering Committee met behind closed doors for most of Tuesday. Most committees will keep the same chairs they already have, but more than half a dozen will get new leaders: In addition to McCaul’s new post, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Texas) will now chair Financial Services, Rep. Ed Royce (Calif.) will lead Foreign Affairs, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Va.) will chair Judiciary, Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas) will chair Rules, Rep. Lamar Smith (Texas) will lead Science, Space, and Technology, and Rep. Bill Shuster (Pa) will head up Transportation and Infrastructure.

House committee chairs are term-limited, so all of the new chairmen are replacing someone who had to step down. Still, one lawmaker obtained a waiver to go around House rules and stay on as committee chair in the next Congress, despite his term being up: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) will remain atop the House Budget Committee.

This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Jennifer Bendery covered the White House and Congressional leadership for three years at Roll Call before coming to HuffingtonPost. Prior to that, Bendery reported for four years on the Texas State Legislature for GalleryWatch in Austin, Texas, and covered health care policy for a number of national weekly newsletters. She also worked in book publishing in San Francisco for three years.

[Photo by DonkeyHotey]

By Manny Diaz and John Zogby, Huffington Post Latino Voices

Former Governor Mitt Romney ran a very competitive race for the Presidency, but the anatomy of his defeat marks a real turning point for the Republican Party. The white vote is shrinking and an African-American candidate can win nationally with less than 40 percent of white support. As we consider demographics, let’s understand that, as a percentage of the total U.S. population, today’s Baby Boomers are 81 percent white; our children, the First Globals, are 61 percent white and very young grandchildren are only 49 percent white. So winning the “non-white vote” is essential for a party’s candidate to stay competitive. What is especially problematic for the GOP is that its share of Latino support keeps shrinking since 2004 and that today even fewer Latino voters consider themselves conservative than they did a decade ago.

Let’s review some numbers. Latinos were 4 percent of 92 million total voters in the 1992 Presidential election; 5 percent of 95 million voters in 1996; 6 percent of 105 million in 2000; 8 percent of 123 million in 2004; and 9 percent of 133 million in 2008. Votes are still being counted, but exit polls suggest that Latinos accounted for 10 percent of the total of about 130 million voters in 2012. While a GOP candidate has had to rely on approximately 35 percent of the Latino vote to win, Mitt Romney received only 29 percent (compared to George W. Bush’s 40 percent in 2004).

We have aggregated the Zogby Polls from 2012 to get a granular picture of this voting group. This is a first look at 2,246 Latino voters polled in 2012 and the picture reveals some terrible news for the GOP and its future. Nearly three in ten Latino Republicans voted for President Barack Obama and just over one in three self-described conservatives voted for his reelection. Two in three men and nearly three in four women supported Mr. Obama. Significantly, just about two thirds of Latinos in the “Swing States” voted for the President.

At least two in three of every income group and 70 percent of Weekly Walmart Shoppers voted for the reelection of the incumbent. Even the fast-growing evangelical voters in the Latino community…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Manny Diaz is the former mayor of Miami, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and author of Miami Transformed: Rebuilding America, One Neighborhood, One City at a Time.

John Zogby is founder of the Zogby Poll, senior analyst with Zogby Analytics, and author of The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.

[Photo By The Rachel Maddow Show]

By Adranna Quintero, Huffington Post Latino Voices

Much was said this year about how Latinos would cast the deciding vote in this election. So last night I watched closely to see just how much we the Latino electorate, impacted the election. Early results show that Latinos did just that.

Latinos turned out in droves. We voted early and voted our conscience and our experience. Over the next weeks we will pore over these results, but what has been materializing over the past decade is now clear: our time has come.

An impreMedia-Latino Decisions poll released Tuesday estimated that Obama had won 75 percent of Latino voters nationwide, which is very close to the most recent exit polls that find Latino support at around 72 percent — higher than in 2008. In states like Colorado, Nevada and Florida, the results hinged on Latino turnout. Even in states not traditionally thought of as Latino strongholds like Ohio and Pennsylvania, exit polls were crediting Obama’s win thanks in part to Latino voters.

An estimated 24 million Hispanic-Americans were eligible to vote this election (an increase of more than 4 million since 2008), and 11-12 million were expected to actually go to the polls. Turnout was key for all of us working with Latino voters since for our community, this election carried high stakes. Our unemployment rate remains high, health care remains a priority with many Latinos — many of whom are uninsured, education is critical for our youth, our communities are still bearing the brunt of pollution and global warming, and there is of course…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices

Adrianna Quintero Somaini is a senior attorney and the founder/director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Latino Advocacy program, “La Onda Verde.”

[Phot by Ray_from_LA]

By Elise Foley, Huffington Post Latino Voices

The Obama campaign can already be confident it will win Latino voters, who in most polls support the president over Republican nominee Mitt Romney by margins greater than two to one. It is now working to make sure Latinos come out to vote in large numbers, and a television and radio ad out in Spanish on Wednesday urges them to do so.

“Why is it so important for Latinos to vote in this election?” talk show host and Obama endorser Cristina Saralegui asks first lady Michelle Obama in the ad, which will air in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia.

“So much is at stake,” Obama replies, going on to list comprehensive immigration reform, health care and education, all of which rank high but not at the top of most Latino voters’ concerns.

Despite the large margins Obama holds over Romney with Latino voters, Democrats have …

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo By Joyce N. Boghosian]

By Elise Foley, Huffington Post Latino Voices

WASHINGTON — Hispanic vote strategists from both parties agreed on Tuesday that the Latino vote could have a major impact even in unexpected place: Ohio, increasingly considered the key state to an electoral victory.

Still, if Latinos want to have a bigger influence in the state, it would help if there were more of them there, Republican strategist Ana Navarro said at a National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials event.

“If we want immigration done, some of us are going to have to bite the bullet and move to Ohio,” the Florida resident, who supports immigration reform, said to laughs from the crowd. “Get big winter coats and just make the sacrifice for the cause.”

NALEO released a report on Tuesday detailing its predictions for the Latino vote and Latino representation in politics, exactly two weeks before the 2012 elections take place. Its executive director, Arturo Vargas, told reporters they expect a record Latino turnout of 12.2 million nationwide, and an increase in Latinos in Congress.

In Ohio, Latinos make up only 3.2 percent of the population. But they still could influence the results, Vargas said.

“Although Ohio may not be a Latino-rich state, a state with two, three percent of the electorate that’s Latino could, in fact, make a difference in a state that’s evenly divided,” he said.

States with larger Latino populations will also prove important, Vargas pointed out, specifically Florida, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

No one at the event denied President Barack Obama is winning with Latinos, and that Democratic candidates are also leading among Latinos in general. That doesn’t mean Democrats can rest on their laurels, however — and neither they nor Republicans are doing so. The other panelist, Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, said she thinks Obama may be able to take Florida, where both he and GOP nominee Mitt Romney have put in significant resources to win the Latino vote.

“In Florida specifically, if President Obama…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo by jasleen_kaur]

By Roque Planas, Huffington Post Latino Voices

If Monday night’s presidential debate is any indicator, Latin America is not a priority for these candidates.

Moderator Bob Schieffer mentioned the Cuban Missile crisis in passing as he opened the discussion. It was the last time Latin America played a major role. In a debate centered on foreign policy, President Barack Obama and his GOP opponent Mitt Romney found ways to mention Detroit and Massachusetts, while completely ignoring Mexico — the country of origin of 60 percent of undocumented workers in the United States, the site of a U.S.-led drug war that has claimed an estimated 60,000 lives, and the ancestral country of some 33 million U.S. Latinos, according to Pew Hispanic Center. Mexico is also the United States’ third largest trade partner, federal data indicates.

While Obama failed to refer to the region a single time…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo courtesy Commission on Presidential Debates]