UW–Madison’s Anthony Hernandez, a teaching faculty member in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies, is the author of a new essay in Fortune magazine. The essay examines the contributions of Latino-owned businesses to the U.S. economy and argues for investing in the educational institutions that help develop future entrepreneurial talent.

In the essay, “America’s Entrepreneurial Boom Begins Long Before Venture Capital,” Hernandez draws on emerging research highlighting the rapid growth of Latino entrepreneurship, making the case that investing in educational opportunity is also an investment in economic growth. He points to classrooms, community colleges, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges, and other Minority-Serving Institutions as critical parts of the nation’s talent-development infrastructure.

At a moment when public investment in many of these institutions has become increasingly uncertain, he argues that education policy deserves to be understood as a central component of economic policy.

“We often celebrate entrepreneurs after they succeed. We spend far less time asking where they came from,” Hernandez said. “If we care about innovation, economic growth, and America’s competitiveness, then education policy is business policy. Workforce policy is entrepreneurship policy. Investing in talent before companies are founded may be one of the smartest economic strategies we have.”

Read Hernandez’s Fortune essay.