Visión 2050: Our New Direction and Why We’re Building Our Own Table
In 2016, I started Latinos for Education in Massachusetts because the reality of Latinos becoming one third of the public-school population across the country was imminent. I knew we needed an educator workforce that better reflected our community and we were woefully behind. I had also been the only Latina in the room enough times to know that we had a duty and responsibility to create space for more leaders in education in all kinds of roles to provide better outcomes for Latino students and improved engagement with families.
So we built leadership development programs for educators at every stage of their careers, prepared Latino leaders to join school boards, and expanded into working with parents to advocate for their children’s education. All this with the theory of change that if enough of our own people led from inside the system, the system itself would transform.
Ten years later, that bet has paid off for kids in ways I couldn’t have promised back then. More than 1,000 fellows have come through our programs nationwide. Hundreds now serve as principals, district leaders, nonprofit executives, policymakers, and advocates in their own right. That work also carried us into policy work where we co-authored and led the passage the Educator Diversity Act in Massachusetts, landmark legislation that set a precedent for diversifying the educator workforce. Today we’ve grown a network of thousands of Latino educators across Massachusetts, Texas, and California, and tens of thousands more who follow our work nationally.
But leading from inside a system built hundreds of years ago for students who don’t reflect the classrooms of today isn’t enough, and I’ve known that for a while.
Artificial intelligence is rewriting how students learn, at the exact moment our democracy feels as fragile as it has in my lifetime. Latino students are one in three children in our public schools nationwide, and Latinos represent one in five American workers. Our communities generate more economic output than all but four nations on earth. And still, the tables where the future of education gets designed rarely have us in the room.
We are done asking for a seat at someone else’s table. We are building our own.
That’s why we are launching Visión 2050. It’s our commitment to a vision for education built by and for Latinos, from students and families to educators and our communities. It runs on two pillars working in tandem. First, we’re mobilizing our own communities, alongside allies who believe in this too, to define what that future looks like and build the collective power to demand it. Our work with developing leaders will continue, preparing the teachers and leaders in our schools with what this moment requires, from AI fluency to the culturally grounded practice no algorithm can replace, so they’re ready to lead the systems we’re building toward.
And you’ll see all of this reflected in how we look because we needed an identity to match our ambitions. For the first time in our ten-year history, we have a new logo, bolder colors, and a brand new website.
Look closely at the dots that have always been part of our logo: they no longer form a schoolhouse with educators and pupils inside it. Now they reflect our full community, because building this future will take all of us. The schoolhouse itself is gone, too, because the future of education may not live inside a traditional school building at all. In its place is an upward arrow, tracing the trajectory we believe our community is on. Even the cursive “for” in our name is gone, a nod to how outdated that style feels today. Our type is bolder now because so is the work ahead of us.
This chapter asks us to hold something much bigger: a vision for education, built with and by the communities it serves.
If you’ve been with us over the past ten years, the values that built this organization will continue to anchor us: Lead from our identity, Work con ganas, Bridge across cultures, Agitate when necessary, and Rise as a Collective. What’s different is the size of the table we’re asking you to help build. If this is the first time you’ve heard from us, welcome. There’s real room for you here too.
I invite you to explore Visión 2050 and tell us what your own vision for education looks like. Then share it with the people in your life, because a vision like this one grows one voice at a time, the same way ours always has.
Con ganas, we can.
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Amanda Fernandez is the CEO and Founder of Latinos for Education, the first national organization dedicated to advancing Latino leadership in education. Under her visionary leadership, the organization has expanded from a Boston-based nonprofit to a national leader in education policy, advocacy, and leadership development. Amanda serves on the Massachusetts Governor’s Latino Empowerment Council and previously co-chaired the education committee on Governor Healey’s transition team. She has been recognized with prestigious awards like the McNulty Prize Catalyst Fund and the Innovator of Color Award by ASU GSV. Amanda holds a Master of Science in Adult Education from Fordham University.
