1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Hispanic Educational Resources and Empowerment Act of 2023 . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Hispanics and Latinos are the largest, youngest, and second-fastest growing minority population in the United States, accounting for half of the Nation’s population growth between 2010 and 2020. (2) While Hispanics and Latinos compose 18 percent of the population of the United States, they compose 26 percent of the prekindergarten through grade 12 public school student enrollment in the United States. (3) Over 3,300 local educational agencies have 25 percent or more Hispanic and Latino enrollment and those local educational agencies enroll 78 percent of all prekindergarten through grade 12 Hispanic and Latino students in the United States. (4) Hispanic and Latino students face disparities in educational outcomes, including lower grades, lower scores on standardized tests, and higher dropout rates. (5) Hispanic and Latino students tend to face greater barriers once in college than their non-Hispanic and Latino peers. Seventy percent of Hispanic and Latino college students are first-generation college students and nearly half of Hispanic and Latino college students are eligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant. (6) Hispanics and Latinos have less access to enrolling in, or graduating from, institutions of higher education. (7) More Hispanics and Latinos are going to college than ever before, but only slightly more than half of the Hispanic and Latino students who enroll earn a bachelor’s degree. (8) Hispanics and Latinos lag behind non-Hispanic Whites, Blacks, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islanders in educational attainment of high school diplomas, associate’s degrees, and bachelor’s degrees. (9) In 2019, the median weekly earnings among high school graduates with no postsecondary degree were lower than such earnings for individuals holding associate’s degrees by $123, and for individuals holding bachelor’s degrees by $635. Given this information,