52 percent of adult Latino immigrants are drop-outs

The Pew Hispanic Center released a sobering report this week reminding us about the bleak education outlook for the nation's largest minority group.

The most worrisome stat? More than half of all foreign-born Latino adults in the U.S. are high school drop-outs. That's compared with 25 percent of native-born Hispanics.

The implications of this trend are huge for a host of socio-economic reasons. But one of the most significant? It could lead to a more illiterate and ill-equipped workforce that's precisely what an information and technologically driven economy doesn't need.

From the report:

Some 41% of Hispanic adults age 20 and older in the United States do not have a regular high school diploma, compared with 23% of black adults and 14% of white adults.

Among Hispanics, there are significant differences between the foreign born and the native born in high school diploma attainment rates and GED credentialing rates. Some 52% of foreign-born Latino adults are high school drop-outs, compared with 25% of the native born. And among Hispanic drop-outs, some 21% of the native born have a GED, compared with just 5% of the foreign born.