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There is a cautious optimism among the Latino community educators after the budget proposal was released by President Obama recently. Prominent educators such as Enrique G. Murillo, executive director of Latino Education and Advocacy Days and education professor at California State University are adopting a wait and watch approach to see how the budget is going to benefit their community.

According to Murillo, the budget is praiseworthy from his perspective as someone who deals with Latino student issues and his capacity as an education professional. He said that the budget blueprint is definitely in favour of Latino students and things will definitely change even though certain processes have to go through.

If we go through the budget carefully, we will see an increased focus in work study programs and Federal Pell Grants. There is a severe lack of the work study program which is a program funded federally assisting students with post-secondary education costs.

Director of Operations, Latinos in College, Christine L. Mendonca says that the Latino community will tremendously be helped by our President’s 2014 budget proposal. Early childhood education access will be greatly enhanced for students and this in turn will help increase the number of students. These initiatives will make it easier to align global marketplace to higher education. Controlling secondary education costs will be another aspect that will attract a lot of attention and focus.

Latinos in College is a non-profit organization operating on a national level. This organization is based in New York and focuses especially in helping a large number of Latino students attend four-year universities and graduate.

Mendonca says that College Scorecard shows a lot of promise and we are very excited about it. With the help of this card, students and families are able to make informed decisions with regard to choosing the right universities and colleges. The key data provided in the scorecard makes the job easier for them.

Apart from this aspect, there are many other highlights of the budget proposal that merits consideration. These include the effort o increase college affordability through the $1billion Race to the Top competition. Another aspect that merits consideration is promotion of education to serve workforce needs through a strategic alliance between community colleges and businesses. Student loans will now attract lower interest rates which is another positive factor that will work in favour of students.

Murillo particularly focuses on the reduction in student loan rate. The system being market based, there is no clear indication of how this will work but overall, the fact that low-income students have to pay a very low interest rate, in fact the lowest in many years is an encouraging factor.

These are the most important factors in our budget that directly and positively impact the LEAD mission which is nothing but solving the educational crisis faced by Latino students through broad based awareness. This in turn will help develop cultural, intellectual and personal aspects of educators, students, parents, leaders and administrators in this community. This segment of population therefore stands to greatly benefit from the budget.