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Happy Independence
Bicentennial, Mexico, Happy Hispanic Heritage
Month To All
I hear the gruff echoing of fireworks in the distance tonight as I
hurry to complete this article. It is the sound of Mexicans and Mexican
Americans celebrating the 200th anniversary of their
independence from Spain. Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras also celebrate their liberation this week--though their
official severance from Spain came in different years--making this a
natural for the start of Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month. The
Hispanic-American Village would like to extend its warmest wishes and
continuing support to all of our Latin American community, offering this
article in the hopes that we will continue to be a valued and positive
resource for you.
“Getting an education,” or moving on to post secondary school
learning, is no longer the privilege of an elite few, which it was one
hundred years ago when the US was home to an earlier great wave of
immigration. Throughout the early
part of the 20th century, a university degree or higher lay
mostly within reach of those who could afford the luxury to think
theoretically or philosophically, indulge in reading literature, gaze
with purpose or poetic longing at the stars, or of those privy to follow
their family’s legacy in medicine, jurisprudence, engineering, science.
For an indigent immigrant, this privilege was hard, indeed, to come by,
but many persisted and realized their dreams.
Once Americans became comfortable enough, they began to embrace more
humanistic ideals, and “getting an education” became the vehicle for
expanding the mind. Learning became one province of our democracy, a
right rather than a privilege, open to all. Now, with the advent of a
new century, “getting an education” has taken on a very different
meaning. Today a post-secondary education is mostly sought in order to
prepare one with a skill, a license, or some other passport to financial
stability. Education’s drift towards a money-making end product has
been made more dramatic since the recession and we have seen
applications for higher education institutions increased markedly.
“Getting an education” in the 21st century is indispensible
to economic wellbeing.
Therefore, for Latinos in this past year--from September to
September--issues around education have taken on exceptional import.
Following are highlights of events and findings relative to higher
education for Latinos occurring over the last 12 months.
THE DREAM ACT
The hotly debated DREAM Act will be coming up for a vote once again
and very soon. We have just learned that its main sponsor, Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, has appended it to the military
appropriations bill to be voted on next week. First introduced in 2001,
and coming near to passage in 2007, the DREAM Act (Development,
Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act) will allow young people
who came to the US unauthorized to embark on a path towards legal
permanent residence.
Under the DREAM Act, unauthorized high school graduates (or GED—General
Educational Development—diploma holders) who came to the US before their
16th birthday, have been in the US continuously for five
year, are under 35 years of age at the time of passage, and can
demonstrate good moral character, would be eligible for “conditional
status” and begin the process of attaining permanent residency. If,
after 6 years, the young immigrant has either completed two or more
years of a bachelor’s degree or higher or served two years honorably in
the military, he/she would be able to apply for permanent residence.
Optimism for passage was stoked after reports surfaced scrutinizing
the shift by the Obama administration in the enforcement of existing
immigration laws. The New York Times of August 8, 2010 reported that,
while record numbers of undocumented immigrants with violent criminal
records had been deported, students, even those who flaunted their
illegal status openly, were being spared from deportation.
According to the
Migration Policy Institute, over two million young people
would be eligible for permanent status were the bill to be passed
imminently. The vast majority of these are Latinos, having crossed the
southern border as young children with their parents. The importance of
the DREAM Act’s passage transcends the number, even the lives of the
immigrant students who will now be able to achieve their academic goals;
it reaches into the very nature of immigrant fairness policy and the
values underlying educating a whole society. (Excellent studies and
references on the DREAM Act are available at the
MPI web site.)
LATINOS UNDER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS
A number of studies were completed this year on Latinos and
education, with the outlook generally balanced between daunting and
optimistic. Studies can influence policy, especially when carried out by
respected and unbiased organizations; thus it is important to pay them
mind. Following are a number of the findings:
AP-UNIVISION POLL
An Associated
Press-Univision Poll has found that a higher percentage of Latinos than
Americans as a whole believe that higher education is extremely or very
important. (87% Latinos to 78% the overall population). 74% of the
respondents said it was more important for girls to have a college
education with 71% saying education was more vital for boys. And, while
94% of all Latinos queried said they expected their children to attend
college, only 13% of all Hispanics have a college degree today. Lack of
funds was a dominant reason for the lower number of degrees as were
family obligations and lukewarm support from the community and family.
With an eye to the import of the findings of the poll, Michael Kirst, a
Stanford University education professor commented, "A main takeaway here
for policy makers is that there are a lot of things that are inhibiting
Hispanics". (Univision.com, Aug. 3, 2010)
THE PEW CENTER
POLLS
The Pew
Center, at the close of last year, conducted an extensive survey of
Latino youths between the ages of 16 to 25, with arresting findings.
Latinos and
Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap found that,
while Latinos
have the highest dropout rate in the nation, at 17%, nearly three times
that of whites and twice that of African Americans, they place a high
value on education; 87% responded that a college education is either
very or extremely important. (The study noted, however, that, high as
the current Latino drop out rate may seem, it has been slowly decreasing
over the years.) A preceding Pew study revealed that 48% of the Latinos
surveyed was planning to, at some point, get a college degree. This
same report (Latinos
and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap) found that 74% of Latinos
who either dropped out of high school or abandoned plans for higher
education did so in order to support their families.
In another study, High School Dropouts
and the GED, Pew researchers found that just one Latino dropout in 10
has today an actual diploma or a GE. The import of the GED is that it
allows the holder to enter the military
and/or eventually pave the way to college entrance.
Pew reported that the proportion of young
Latino adults, aged 16 to 25, in school or the work force is higher now
than before. The report compared today’s numbers, 86%, with 1970, when
only 77% of Latinos were employed or attending school.
Go to the
Pew Hispanic Center’s web site for these and other reports.
ARIZONA
With the anti-immigration law, SB 1070, hogging the headlines, two
other state ordinances that are specific to education have slipped under
the radar. They portend hard times for Arizona’s youth. Unless
challenged, their repercussions will be far-reaching, undoing the gains
Arizona’s Latino students have been making and impeding their progress
towards higher learning. The first ordinance mandates that teachers who
work with English learning students be removed if they are found, by
Arizona’s education authorities, and at their discretion, to have a
heavy foreign accent. (Among the stiff criteria being used to weed out
those shy of proficiency is the ability to distinguish, in English
speech, between ‘b’ and ‘v’.) The other blow is the banning of ethnic
studies classes in the Tucson school district. Claiming that ethnic
studies manifest “ethnic chauvinism,” the ban’s supporters also have
insinuated that teaching ethnic (read “Mexican,” of course) pride could
lead to calls for the overthrow of the US government. (See the HAV’s
article,
Arizona puts a new face on know-nothingism.)
HSIs
The number of Hispanic Serving Institutions of higher learning has
jumped from 216 in 7007 to 226 today. HSI’s are institutions of higher
learning with a total Hispanic enrollment of over 25%. This is
encouraging, as these schools tend to provide a milieu that is
comfortable for Latinos and conducive to their learning and success.
And, the rise in numbers is an indication that college enrollment for
Latinos is up.
CONCLUSION
As many other immigrant groups have done throughout US history,
Latinos are quickly learning that, no matter its current emphasis,
whether on the academic and theoretical or concrete and applied, the
education of their children is crucial to a better life, a more
comfortable lifestyle and inclusion in this society. It is clear that
the road has been made rockier, but there are signs that, again like
other groups that have faced adversity, obstacles will be overcome and a
great many will fulfill their dreams.
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