For the past several years, education has topped the list of Latino voter priorities — often beating out even immigration, health care, and jobs. Enthusiasm for higher education has been much higher among Latinos compared to the general population. Yet, their hopes and expectations don’t yet match up with reality. While 94 percent of Latinos say they expect their own children to go to college, only 13 percent of Latinos have a college degree or higher.

Today, the White House released a report which sets forth a strategy to address that discrepancy. Many of the proposals are part of Obama’s general education plan: creating more “Promise Neighborhood” projects, turning around low-performing schools, supporting innovative teaching methods, reforming No Child Left Behind, and boosting the number of effective teachers in the classroom. However, the White House also sets forth proposals that directly address many of the obstacles that Latinos in particular face:

– Training and growing the number of effective Latino teachers in the classroom by providing special support to Minority-Serving Institutions and through the national TEACH Campaign which “aims to increase the number, quality and diversity of candidates seeking to become teachers.”

– Providing more support for Latinos enrolled in adult education programs to learn English and to improve their reading, writing and numeracy skills.

– Strengthening Hispanic-Serving Institutions by investing $1 billion in public and private nonprofit colleges and universities with a student body that is at least 25 percent Latino.

– Strengthening Pell Grants, creating more affordable loans, and simplifying the financial aid application process.

While there will undoubtedly be at least a handful of right-wingers who accuse the Obama administration of pandering to minorities, helping Latinos raise their educational achievement should be a national priority. New Census figures show that Latinos comprise over 16 percent of the population and are the fastest growing minority group.

Juan Sepulveda, director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, points out that the number of Latinos in the U.S. has “grown so large that the future of the U.S. is inextricably linked to the future of the Latino community.” The Miami Herald noted that “Latinos are the largest minority group in America’s public education system, numbering more than 12.4 million in Pre-K through high school…nearly 22 percent, or one in five, of all Pre-K through 12 students enrolled in America’s public schools is Latino.”

Our guest blogger is Theodora Chang, Education Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Taking its renegade reputation to a whole new level, the Texas legislature is expected to consider House Bill 2923, which would amend the state education code to explicitly prohibit the adoption of any curriculum standards that are shared by — well, anyone but Texas.

Introduced by State Rep. Dan Huberty, who campaigned on eliminating the state’s standardized tests altogether, the bill promotes extreme education isolationism:

“The State Board of Education…shall require each district to provide instruction in the essential knowledge and skills at appropriate grade levels. A district may not meet this requirement through the use of national curriculum standards…no school district or open enrollment charter school may be required to offer any aspect of a national curriculum…[and] may not adopt or develop a criterion-referenced assessment instrument based on national curriculum standards.”

It further defines “national curriculum standards,” as including “any curriculum standards endorsed, approved, sanctioned or promoted by the United States Department of Education, the National Governors Association, or the Council of Chief State School Officers.”

On one hand, the bill seems to reflect some cognitive dissonance on the part of state legislators. In spite of repeated references to the idea that “local control is the key to the success of schools and districts,” Texas lawmakers are now putting forth legislation that would strip away local control over teaching and learning.

On a deeper level, HB 2923 is a thinly veiled attempt to keep Texas far away from the Common Core State Standards, a state-driven initiative to set common academic expectations. State leaders, concerned about high dropout rates and global economic competitiveness, are collaboratively developing grade-level goals for student learning that states expect to adopt and implement by 2014. Texas has not joined the more than 40 states that have adopted the Common Core Standards.

Under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, states are responsible for getting all students to the “proficient” level, but are also allowed to adopt their own definitions of “proficiency.” Texas exemplifies this disconnect — under the state’s definition of proficiency, 84 percent of Texas 4th graders were proficient in reading in 2009, but only 28 percent of those same 4th graders scored proficient in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Efforts like the Common Core State Standards Initiative may be challenging to implement, but they are important because they push educators to help their students become more college-and-career-ready. Instead of further closing itself off, Texas should look to provide the best possible education for its students by considering effective practices beyond its own backyard.