The following is from the president of Hispanic CREO, Julio Fuentes:
“We should be encouraged by recent data showing that graduation rates among black and Hispanic students in Florida are higher than the national average for those groups. But the trend, as reported in Education Week this month, is no reason to ease up on our efforts to provide the best and most comprehensive educational options to all of our students – regardless of race, ethnicity, zip code or income level.
“While states like Florida are seeing improvement in areas such as minority graduation, the fact remains that we have a national crisis in the educational access, attainment and success of our minority students – Hispanic in particular. Consider: the Education Week report shows the high school graduate figures for Florida were 9.6 percentage points higher than the national average for Hispanic students and 3.5 percentage points higher for black students. Meanwhile, a White House/ U.S. Department of Education report released in April 2011 at Miami-Dade College found that Hispanics have the lowest education attainment level overall of any group in the U.S., yet are the largest minority group in the U.S. public education system with more than 12.4 million Hispano students in elementary, middle and high schools.
“This wide education gap amounts to a civil rights crisis. The United Nations, in its longstanding Declaration of Fundamental Human Rights, declares that among those rights is access to a quality education. Meanwhile, we are in the final year of the United Nations’ The Literacy Decade Mandate, launched in 2003 to increase literacy worldwide. The Mandate might be expiring, but the problem isn’t.
“The White House/ U.S. Department of Education report, Winning the Future: Improving Education for the Latino Community, shows that less than half of Latino children are enrolled in pre-school, only half earn their high school degree on time, and those who do are only half as likely as their peers to be prepared for college. Even more alarming is that only 4 percent have earned their graduate or professional degrees – a key step to career and financial success.
“Little wonder, then, that a recently released poll of voters in five key battleground states including Florida found that education is a top-tier issue for battleground voters and Latinos – even more important than immigration, in some cases. The poll, co-sponsored by the American Federation for Children (AFC) and the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (HCREO), found that Latino voters in Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and New Jersey are more likely than voters overall to cite as core priorities improving education and increasing education options.
“We cannot, in good conscience, let these disparities continue. Given the increase in our minority population nationwide – with Census data revealing minorities in the United States are becoming the majority of our population – we must act with urgency.
“Hispanic CREO is committed to working with our leaders to address and solve this education crisis by opening the door of opportunity to every child. A child’s academic destiny should never be tied to a street address or zip code. Every parent has the right to choose a learning program that is stimulating and challenging to his or her child. Florida, Indiana and Louisiana and other states have made significant progress in opening school choice options to more families of every ethnicity, but until all of our students are succeeding, our work is not done.
“The right to education is a fundamental human right. We must work together – elected leaders, education officials and families – to educate our future generation.”
- Julio Fuentes, president of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (Hispanic CREO)
MEDIA CONTACT
Alberto Collazo
Director of Communications
(305) 297-9043
[email protected]
SOURCE: Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (Hispanic CREO)
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