A two-hour public hearing was held at Easton City Hall Tuesday as part of the 2026 Pennsylvania Latino Convention. The hearing covered struggles and successes of the state\u2019s Latino community in areas like education, economic development, health care, housing, violence, and civic engagement.<\/p>\n
PA Latino Convention Chair Norman Bristol Col\u00f3n told lawmakers Pennsylvania is now home to about 1.3 million Latinos. That\u2019s roughly 10% of the state\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are one of the fastest growing communities in the Commonwealth, driving a major share of statewide population growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the community\u2019s relatively young population is also reshaping Pennsylvania\u2019s schools and workforce.<\/p>\n
Education was a major focus of the hearing. Bianca Reyes of the Pennsylvania Association of Hispanic School Administrators called for more bilingual educators, stronger English learner programs, and expanded college and career opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cBilingualism is a superpower. It is an educational and economic asset. Invest in bilingual educators, dual language programs, and professional learning that prepares teachers to support multilingual students while maintaining rigorous expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Witnesses also highlighted the economic pressures Latino families are facing, including lower wages, barriers to homeownership, and food insecurity.<\/p>\n
Organizers said the testimony is intended to help shape political priorities and resource allocation in Harrisburg. Legislative Latino Caucus Chair Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz said lawmakers came to hear what is working and what isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community is growing, our contributions are undeniable, and our collective power is real.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A two-hour public hearing was held at Easton City Hall Tuesday as part of the 2026 Pennsylvania Latino…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-293285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}