By Claudia Amaro | Planeta Venus
When Edgar Palacios visited a high school in Houston, Texas, a city with a large Latino population, he noticed something that would change his life: Almost all of the students were Latino, but the principal and assistant principals were white. When asked about this difference, the principal said that they hired those who adapted to the “culture” of the school. This led Palacios to ask: “Whose culture are we focusing on?” Motivated by this concern, in 2018 Palacios founded the Latinx Education Collaborative (LEC) in Kansas City, a non-profit organization dedicated to recruiting, retaining, and empowering Latino educators to transform the education system and ensure that minority students are represented in the classroom.
Edgar Palacios’ story inspires the community from his days as a low-income music student to becoming one of the Midwest’s most influential education advocates. His story highlights a major crisis: the lack of Latino teachers as role models for a rapidly growing Latino student population. By learning about the work of the LEC and its political arm, Revolución Educativa (RevEd), it becomes clear that representation in schools is not only a labor issue, but also a key tool for family success and the political power of the Latino community.
Edgar Palacios’ vocation was not born from a plan; he knew it from childhood. Palacios was born in Miami Beach, Florida, the son of Nicaraguan immigrants who fled the civil war in 1981. Palacios lived in several cities, including Spokane, Washington, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In 2004, he came to Kansas City to study at the UMKC Conservatory of Music. However, his time in college was difficult; Unlike many white classmates, he did not have the resources to pay for private vocal lessons.
He graduated in 2008, at the start of the Great Recession. After working in a supermarket and selling insurance, he discovered his true passion for nonprofits, which seek social welfare. “My story is about seeing problems, being interested in them, trying to find solutions, and stumbling until I discover them,” confesses Palacios.
While working as a community consultant and traveling through cities like Denver, Chicago, and Houston, Palacios noticed a troubling pattern: Classrooms were filled with Latino children, but there were almost no Latino adults at the front. He discovered that the problem was systemic. To become a teacher, you have to overcome many obstacles: graduating from high school, having family support, getting scholarships, and paying for certification exams. In addition, Latino teachers often face unwelcoming environments. If they are bilingual and the only Latinos in the school, they end up being the “Chief Latino Officer,” with extra translation tasks and unpaid social support, which can lead to burnout and leaving the profession in less than three years.
To address this problem, Palacios founded the Latinx Education Collaborative (LEC) in 2018. The LEC is a 501(c)(3) organization, a legal figure in the United States for tax-exempt charitable organizations. Its mission is to create conditions for young Latinos to advance by increasing the presence of Latino teachers in schools from kindergarten through senior year of high school.
With the growth of the LEC, Palacios realized that representation was not enough in the face of the challenges for public education. It was necessary to build political power. That’s why in 2021 he launched Revolución Educativa (RevED), a group that conducts independent political campaigns to support Latino candidates for school boards and promotes policies that benefit young people.
Palacios’ commitment is both professional and personal. He is the husband of Laura Palacios, a project management consultant, Latina youth mentor, and community leader, and the father of three children: JoJo (13), Ella (11), and Isabel (5). Being a father changed his view of community advocacy. He has experienced firsthand how difficult the education system can be for Latino children.
For this reason, Edgar strongly supports empowering parents. He rejects the idea that Latino parents are not interested in their children’s education; rather, he says that many times it is the school system that does not really involve them. He insists that schools must offer meetings with interpreters, food that fits the culture, and, above all, honesty. “Parents are the first teachers; they are the experts on their children, and I think we should treat them as such,” he says.
The figures show both the impact of Palacios’ work and the size of the challenge. In the United States, Latino students make up nearly 28% of the public school population, but Latino educators make up only 9%. In Kansas City, where there are about 52,000 Latino students (one in four students), the situation is starting to improve. Thanks to the LEC, the presence of Latino educators has nearly tripled: from 1% in 2019 to 2.7% in the 2024-2025 cycle. However, there is still a large gap of 16 points compared to Latino student enrollment (18.5% in the region).
Despite the challenges and low salaries in teaching, Palacios reminds us that being a teacher is being “a guardian of success”, with the power to influence the future of students. Their story and their work invite us to reflect on the value of our presence. As he tells parents and future educators, “Latinos are great. We are a great community. We contribute so much to this country and to the state of Kansas. Sometimes it’s easy to forget… but we are going to continue to prosper and persist.”
And for those who feel fear or loneliness in the U.S. system, Palacios shares comforting words: “You are not alone in this space. People exist, resources exist”
This article was republished here with the permission of: Planeta Venus