By Ramona Schindelheim for WorkingNation.
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Collaboration

There are more than 63.7 million Latinos in the United States, making it the nation's largest racial or ethnic minority at 19.1% of the total population.

They also make up about 20% of the nation's workforce.

Latinos are the youngest cohort in the country's population with a median age of around 30, while the U.S. population, as a whole, is around 38.5.

Between now and 2030, 78% of the net new workers in the country - people entering the labor market minus the people retiring from the labor market - will be Latino, according to a forecast from the U.S. Department of Labor.

As our economy continues to shift the way we work, more than nine out of ten job postings (92%) in the country now require some level of digital skills development. However, more than half of Latinos (57%) have low to no digital skills.

"These data points show us the very urgent need to make sure that Latino workers get proper access to digital skills training opportunities. We really need to double down on our efforts to make sure that Latino workers, Latino business owners, and the Latino community as a whole, have the right tools to fully participate in the digital economy," says Diego Deleersnyder, associate director for Policy & Research at the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society program.

He leads the Latino Digital Inclusion Initiative, which aims at identifying, developing, and uplifting promising ecosystem approaches that better prepare Latinos to compete in a 21st century digital economy.

Earlier this summer, Latinos and Society released the Aspen Principles for Latino Digital Success, a series of guidelines to inform the design and implementation of effective digital equity efforts targeting the Latino community.

These principles compile the main takeaways from the January meeting of the Aspen Latino Digital Success Task Force, co-chaired by Hector Mujica, Google.org; Juan Otero, Comcast Corporation; and Amanda Renteria, Code for America.

Expanding access to the the digital economy

Deleersnyder says the group envisions the principles and their accompanying questions as a framework for decision makers in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors on how to better support the Latino community in this journey.

"Basically, it's four principles. The first one of them is digital access, which focuses on the aspects that need to be considered when developing policies or initiatives that aim at improving the access to internet and digital devices in the Latino community," he says.

"The second one is around digital skills - a series of guidelines on how to make sure that the digital skills programming aligns with the needs and expectations of the Latino community, understanding that the Latino community is very heterogeneous, and that there is no one size fits all."

The third principle is digital empowerment.

"This is basically to ensure that the private sector, the companies, the organizations, the employers, provide the tools that employees need in order to successfully growing their careers. This is not just about training the people. If the people that get trained don't have proper access, there is no pipeline into high-quality jobs in the tech sector or good jobs in other industries that increasingly require digital skills, then all that effort is for nothing, right?" Deleersnyder continues.

The fourth principle is around sustainability - making certain there are sufficient investments across the capital continuum to support digital equity efforts in the long run.

He explains, "It's a reflection on how right now there is a unique opportunity with all the public funding becoming available for digital equity efforts. And that's amazing. That's great news for all of us. But we need to make sure that we also start thinking of alternative sources of funding, focusing on the importance of securing funding from philanthropy, but also identifying innovative ways of funding some of these programs. And also the discussion around impact, how we can make sure that the dollars are going to the most impactful initiatives, because at the end of the day, the resources are limited."

Deleersnyder points out that given the size and projected growth of the Latino workforce, it is imperative that the public, nonprofit, and private sectors act now to arm that workforce with the skills it needs to succeed.

"If the Latino workforce doesn't have the tools they need in order to succeed in the digital economy, this is going to impact negatively the competitiveness of the U.S. economy, as a whole. So, definitely, this is something of interest not only to Latinos, but to the whole of the U.S economy and the whole of the U.S. society."


Ramona Schindelheim wrote this article for WorkingNation.


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Virginia advocates believe more can be done to make higher education accessible to incarcerated people.

Only a handful of community colleges partner with less than half of the state's correctional facilities to help people obtain associate's degrees.

In 2023, incarcerated people became eligible for federal Pell Grants, supporting tuition costs for low-income individuals.

Terri Erwin, director of the Virginia Consensus for Higher Education in Prison, an initiative of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, said the General Assembly can help grow the programs.

"I think that the General Assembly can be kind of a third leg in the stool in supporting the collaboration as it develops between the Department of Corrections and the institutions of higher education," Erwin asserted. "What might be needed depends in part on how those relationships develop."

Higher education's shift to technology was one big challenge in maintaining this access during the pandemic. She noted Virginia did not pivot the same way, yet technology solutions in states such as Tennessee and Maine provided secure learning management and intranet access to incarcerated students. Despite the challenges, higher education in prison has grown nationwide in recent years.

Studies show some benefits of these programs are a 43% reduction in recidivism and a 13% increase in post-release employment. Erwin emphasized the programs can be transformative for people.

"It's an opportunity to reenter society with just one more similarity to folks who have been on the outside all along," Erwin pointed out. "It helps to move past some of the stigma. It gives them a hook to put their hat on as they move forward in looking for jobs and telling the story about who they are."

Formerly incarcerated people reentering society face numerous obstacles. Programs such as SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are proven to reduce recidivism by 10% but having a criminal background disqualifies someone's eligibility for both social programs and unemployment insurance.


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A new report shows Black girls are enduring disproportionate discipline, sexual harassment and public humiliation from school-based police and security guards in Miami-Dade public schools.

The report, "Keep Her Safe: Centering Black Girls in School Safety," compiles the experiences of Black girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 24, sharing their stories through surveys and focus groups about mistreatment by school safety personnel who make them feel unsafe.

Bayliss Fiddiman, director of educational equity at the National Women's Law Center, which produced the study along with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the girls were being treated differently for their appearance, often unaware of the lines of sexual harassment.

"The girls express school security guards making inappropriate comments about their appearance that could range from. 'Oh, she looks ghetto,' or 'she's too big to wear that outfit. I would never let my daughter wear that,'" Fiddiman explained.

The report urged the school system to use proven behavioral interventions in such cases, rather than using policing, surveillance and harsh student punishment. Miami-Dade schools has not responded to a request for comment on the study.

Fiddiman pointed out in listening sessions, the girls also did not have a clear understanding of whom to tell if they felt violated. She argued it is an opportunity for school leaders to step in and explain school safety procedures by engaging students in the conversation.

"Schools can definitely implement policies around explaining what sexual harassment is, what boundaries are, what is safe and healthy," Fiddiman recommended. "That was missing."

The report underscored incidents of security using excessive force, such as a 16-year-old Black girl being slammed to the ground, rendering her unconscious and subsequently handcuffed to prevent a fight in 2021. In 2023, a Miami-Dade security guard faced allegations of attempting to seduce three teenage girls.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in response to the 2018 Parkland shooting aimed to bolster school safety. However, it also led to heightened law enforcement presence in schools and increased surveillance measures.


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Advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have joined the Montana Quality Education Association in a suit to stop a school voucher bill in the state.

Montana is the latest to enact a plan allowing parents to pay private school tuition with public money. Senate Bill 393 is much more narrowly focused than Educational Savings Accounts in other states. In Montana, the money is limited to reimbursing services for special-education students and those with disabilities.

Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, executive director of Helena-based Upper 7 Law which is overseeing the suit, said Montana's version of Educational Savings Accounts requires special-ed students to renounce their right to a free, quality education under the state constitution and forgo federal assistance.

"In exchange for renouncing that, they can gain access to anywhere between $5,000 and $8,000 annually," Sommers-Flanagan explained. "Which, as we all know, is not enough money to educate a child for a year under any circumstances, let alone a student who may have special needs and may have particularity expensive special needs depending on the circumstances."

School voucher measures are growing across the nation, 29 states now having some form of them. The suit to block the Montana bill was filed in state court in Helena.

In addition to the critics' standard argument which holds funding Educational Savings Accounts with state education money comes at the expense of public K-12 classrooms, Sommers-Flanagan added the accounts will not make enough money available to adequately fund special-needs students anyway.

"It's a lose-lose situation," Sommers-Flanagan contended. "It's incredibly harmful. It appears just to be a gambit to try to privatize public money and to send it to vendors and to folks who have no accountability and no responsibility to genuinely meet the needs of kids who have disabilities in Montana."

Supporters have said they can do a better job educating their own kids than the state can because they understand the students' strengths and weaknesses.