Educating Hispanics will be key to Atlanta’s future

Atlanta, as it become more diverse, needs to think about how its labor force will compete in the next 50 years.

That’s the conclusion of former U.S. Census Bureau director Martha Farnsworth Riche, who spoke Wednesday morning at Morehouse College to a group of about 150 people interested in demographics.

Organized by the Atlanta Regional Commission, the seminar focused on the metro area’s diverse population and how it will evolve by the year 2050.

The number of Hispanics in metro Atlanta is projected to rise from about 700,000 to more than 2.5 million, according to Riche.

While Hispanics will be the fastest growing segment of the population, the community is the least well-educated, Riche said. There’s a great need for education, she said.

A case in point is the military. All branches are concerned that as enlisted ranks become increasingly Hispanic and black, officers will continue to be white and Asian because of differences in educational attainment, Riche said. The military wants more minority officers, she said.

“We cannot afford to leave any people out,” Riche said of the need to build an educated and competitive workforce.

“Americans always do the right thing — after they’ve tried all the other alternatives,” she said, quoting Winston Churchill, and getting a laugh from the audience.