One in five students in North Carolina's public schools is Latine. Look at the front of those classrooms and the picture changes. Only 4% of the state's teachers are Latine, along with just 2% of principals and fewer than 1% of school board members.
I think about those numbers often. Before I joined LatinxEd's staff, I taught communications at Wayne Community College and led communications and engagement for Wayne County Public Schools. I met students who were bright, driven and ready, and who still had to figure out the path to college mostly on their own. Too often, the adults who could have shown them the way didn't share their language or their story.
That gap follows our students past graduation. Latine students make up 21% of K-12 enrollment in North Carolina, 16% of community college enrollment and just 4% of university enrollment. That gap reflects barriers to access, not a lack of talent.
Latine North Carolinians are the fastest-growing demographic in our state. Since 2000, nearly all of the growth in public school enrollment has come from Latine students, and our median age is 30. The people who will teach, build and lead North Carolina over the next generation are sitting in our classrooms right now.
The ground under them is shifting. Last year, the federal government rescinded longstanding guidance on schools’ obligations to English learners. The Justice Department declined to defend federal grant programs for Hispanic-Serving Institutions in court, and the Department of Education ended roughly $350 million in discretionary grants for minority-serving colleges, including HSIs. More than 163,000 students in North Carolina are multilingual learners, and the federal guidance that protected their right to language support is gone. Here at home, the North Carolina General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto of a law requiring jails to hold some people for up to 48 hours after they otherwise would have been released, if ICE has asked to take custody and a judicial official has approved the hold. And North Carolina now ranks last in the nation for the share of its economy it invests in public schools.
When public support falls short, investing in our comunidad becomes even more important. Legado is our opportunity to invest in the leaders, students, and families shaping North Carolina’s future and to make sure the next generation has the support and opportunities to lead.
LatinxEd grows Latine leaders inside the systems that shape our students, and opens pathways for the students themselves. Since 2021, the LatinxEd Fellowship has built a network of 175 Latine education leaders across North Carolina. 100% of our youth Fellows are graduating from high school and college, and 96% of Fellows report more confidence in carrying out their vision for educational equity. Beyond the Fellowship, we have trained more than 136 advocates and worked with more than 30 education institutions across 44 counties to better serve Latine students and families.
I know what this investment makes possible because I am one of the people it was made for, and one of the lives it has changed. I was a 2022 LatinxEd Fellow. The Fellowship took a voice that lived mostly inside a classroom and gave it a statewide platform, along with a network of leaders I still lean on. This year, I became LatinxEd’s Executive Director—a full-circle moment and a real-life example of the limitless possibilities that open up when we invest in our community and its leaders. Every Fellow we support carries that same potential.
Every Legado gift turns into something specific:
Legado closes tonight at midnight. Thanks to this comunidad, we have raised $7,500.49 toward our $10,000 goal. If 100 people give $25 before midnight, we reach it.
The generations before us carried their stories and their dreams to North Carolina so we could build on them. Legado is our chance to add our own thread for the students coming next. I hope you'll add yours tonight.
Give to Legado before midnight
Andrea Freile
Executive Director, LatinxEd
