By Arturo Vargas, Executive Director, The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund
We are witnesses today to an historic period in the civic engagement of Latinos in the United States. Latinos have become a permanent fixture of the American political experience, and the Census is an integral part of that. Every issue - healthcare, the economy, jobs, funding for schools, hospitals and roads -- is affected by the Census. Most importantly, the Census is at the core of our democracy. Census data are used by the federal government to distribute $440 billion annually in funds to states and localities. Each one of us is worth $1,400 to our community every year for ten years, until the next Census, so every person missed in the Census means less in resources for schools and clinics, transportation and jobs. It's like throwing money out the window.
In establishing our federal government system, the Founding Fathers determined that a count of the population was needed to see how truly representative the government was going to be, and that's why a Census undertaking every ten years was written into the Constitution. In the past, slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person in the Census, and Native Americans living on reservations were completely excluded. However, now that all persons are included, we need to ensure all Latinos are counted.