According to reports

Latino advocacy groups released a report card grading lawmakers on votes taken in the House and Senate which affect the social, economic and political advancement and quality of life of Hispanics in this country. The report card evaluates such issues as civil rights, economic mobility, education and health. Democratic politicians scored more positively than their Republican counterparts. The report, released by the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda - which represents 35 national Latino groups, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and the National Council of La Raza - has worried Republican officials courting the Latino vote for this year's congressional elections.

Children & Families

Number of Fatherless Homes

Remains Steady

The number of children growing up in fatherless homes has leveled off, according to "Father Facts," a report from the Gaithersburg, Md.-based National Fatherhood Initiative that compiles data regarding fathers, mothers, children, family well-being, marriage and divorce, child custody, child support, stepfamilies and adoption. From 1960 to the mid-'90s, the number of children who lived in single-mom-only homes jumped from 7 million to 20 million. But this number has held steady since 1996. The 182-page report found that 24 million children - 66 percent of Black children, 35 percent of Hispanic children, 27 percent of White children - live in homes without their biological fathers. The report also found that children who live apart from their biological fathers are more likely to be poor, engage in criminal behavior, suffer abuse and have emotional, health and behavioral problems than children who live with their fathers. And fathers who live with their children are more likely to have a close, enduring relationship with their children than those who do not. The best predictor of father presence is marital status: Children bom to cohabiting parents are three times as likely to experience father absence, and children born to unmarried, non-cohabiting parents are four times as likely to live in a father-absent home.

Education

Male Student Presence on College Campuses Dwindling Though men account for 61 percent of the nation's college-age population, the proportion of bachelor's degrees awarded to males has dropped to its lowest point since the second World War. Conversely, the proportion of bachelor's degrees awarded to women reached a post-- World War II high this year, at roughly 57 percent. Among African Americans, the numbers are even worse: Two women earn bachelor's degrees for every man. And at the nation's HBCUs, two-thirds of the applicants and 70 percent of the students are women. This uneven trend began in the mid-1980s and has everyone, from business leaders to demographers to educators, concerned. It is a trend making its way to the high-school level, where graduation rates for boys are slightly lower than those for girls, and male students make up the majority of special education-class enrollees. Though the rise in female graduates is lauded for producing women who are more literate and educated, the decline in male graduates foreshadows social problems.

Sources:

National Hispanic Leadership Agenda Congressional Scorecard, Aug. 14, 2002; "Father Facts, 4th Edition," National Fatherhood Initiative; Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, National Center for Education Statistics.