WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, aware of news that the U.S. Hispanic population has hit 50 million, is turning his attention on issues key to Hispanics, including education.
Early this week, Obama held a town hall meeting at a Washington, D.C. high school, roughly three miles from the White House, where two-thirds of the students are Hispanic.
The town hall, broadcast by the Spanish-language television network Univision, overlapped with the president’s live address to the nation on Libya, but reportedly drew 2.7 million viewers.
“This is an issue that is critical for the success of America generally,” Obama said. “We already have a situation where one out of five students are Latino in our schools, and when you look at those who are 10 years old or younger, it’s actually one in four.
“So what this means is that our workforce is going to be more diverse; it is going to be, to a large percentage, Latino. And if our young people are not getting the kind of education they need, we won’t succeed as a nation.”
It was the type of center-stage treatment that, when it comes to issues of concern to Hispanics, is usually reserved for immigration.
It comes from a White House keenly aware of its failure to move any significant immigration legislation, and of tough immigration enforcement that has led to a record number of deportations. These factors could seriously affect Obama’s credibility within the Hispanic community just as he needs to hang onto that critical voting bloc for his 2012 re-election bid.
