Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama took to the Spanish-language network airwaves Monday  to discuss challenges in educating Hispanics students. In a Univision-sponsored town hall  meeting with Hispanic students and educators at Bell Multicultural High School  in Washington, the president said to out-educate and out-innovate the  global competition, the Latino community must play a key role in the  future. "Our workforce is going to be more  diverse; it is going to be, to a large percentage, Latino. And if our young  people are not getting the kind of education they need, we won't succeed as a  nation," Obama said.
@highlight
Education secretary: Only about half of all Latino students earn high school diploma on time
@highlight
Only one in eight end up with a bachelor's degree
@highlight
Many Hispanic students aren't proficient in English
"And parents should be demanding  and insisting that even if your child is not a native @placeholder speaker, there is  no reason why they can't succeed in school, and schools have an obligation to  make sure that those children are provided for.