WASHINGTON— Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) announced over $3.7 million awarded to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) from the Department of Education (ED) through the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) Program. UTSA’s Academy for Teachers Excellence (ATE), in partnership with Northwest Vista College (NVC) within the Alamo Colleges District, will use these funds to establish the Latino-Teacher Academy Learning Community (Latino-TALC).

Expanding and Enhancing Bilingual Education at UTSA

These funds will be distributed to UTSA over an expected five-year budget period in order to continue the expansion and enhancement of UTSA’s academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability. Specifically, the Latino-TALC project will provide teachers seeking to serve the Bexar County community with much needed support while they navigate through a learning environment to a professional learning network, and as they embark into the teaching profession.

Increasing Opportunities for Hispanic Teachers and Students

In addition, the Latino-TALC project will address the need to increase the number of Hispanic teachers within the critical teaching areas of bilingual education, English as a second language, mathematics, and science. Specifically, the following five goals will be addressed:

1)      Increase the number of Hispanic students prepared to enroll at NVC and UTSA as education majors;

2)      Increase the number of Hispanic and underrepresented students graduating from NVC and transferring to UTSA majoring in a critical teaching area;

3)      Increase the number of student support programs and make psychosocial and culturally relevant support initiatives available to Hispanic other underrepresented teacher candidates majoring in a critical teaching shortage areas;

4)      Create a community of learners composed of faculty, staff, and administrators from NVC, UTSA, and partner high schools to maintain a college-going culture and strengthen the teacher pipeline; and

5)      Evaluate best practices to increase Hispanic teacher candidates’ college completion and teacher certification rates.

Securing Funding for Hispanic Education Programs

For years, Congressman Cuellar has made it a priority to secure funding for HSIs in his district. He helped secure over $123 million in the FY18 Appropriations bill, which provides the funding for this project. Congressman Cuellar continues to work in appropriations to grow HSI initiatives. This year the Congressman helped secure an additional $50 million for such programs through the U.S. House of Representatives’ Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill. Additionally, this year, he worked to include $44.6 million to promote post baccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans Programs including the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) and the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) in the Labor, Health and Education Appropriations bill.

Hispanics constitute 16 percent of the U.S. workforce and more than 60 percent of Hispanic students attend a Hispanic-Serving Institution. There are more than a dozen HSIs in or near Congressman Cuellar’s district, including Laredo College, South Texas College, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, University of the Incarnate Word, Northeast Lakeview College, and Texas A&M International University.  The Congressman will continue to ensure these students are well prepared to enter the U.S. workforce by addressing their particular educational needs.

“I know firsthand the transformative power of education,” explained Congressman Cuellar. “I experienced it in my own life. I also see it every day in my district, as we have more than a dozen Hispanic-Serving Institutions serving our area. These schools produce top-notch academic talent, prepared for a 21^st-century workforce. Our accomplishments today ensure that universities do not miss out on this valuable population in research, partnerships, and hiring – and that these important institutions have the funds they need to continue to succeed. I would like to thank the San Antonio Delegation including Lamar Smith (TX-21), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Will Hurd (TX-23), and Lloyd Doggett (TX-35) for their dedication on this issue.”

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