The first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, in her keynote address at the League of United Latin American Citizens luncheon on Thursday in New York, emphasized education as a tool of empowerment to lift up the Latino community.

Her latest initiative, Reach Higher, encourages young to people to seek education after high school, and it was a concurrent theme in her address.

'There are too many young people in the country who are not getting the education they need,' said Mrs. Obama. She added, 'Education is essential to get a good job. ...[A]nd a college degree is an absolute necessity.'

She told the audience that Latinos are scoring record highs in high school graduation, but regardless of GPAs or test scores, far more are dropping out, and statistics show fewer than 15 percent of Latinos have undergraduate degrees, trailing their black, white and Asians counterparts.

Obama talked about one of the early LULAC organizers, Felix Tijerina, a son of farm workers, who picked cotton and washed dishes but taught himself English. That experience formed the basis of a pilot program which Tijerina funded to teach Latino children five to ten English words a day. Over the summer the children learned 400 words. That practice became the Little School of 400 in the 1930s and 40s, a precursor to the Head Start program introduced by the Johnson Administration in 1965.

Obama said "I know education is only one of the pressing issues on your plate right now with a broken immigration system. Some of you may be wondering why I am focusing on education today. What I know from my own experience, and LULAC's history, is that if we want to lift up the next generation, we must tackle these issues all at the same time."

Actress and musician Jennifer Lopez, introduced Obama, saying, "We're passionate about some of the same things —children, health and education."