by José Armas
The S.F.P.D. parked for two days (Tuesday at Mission and 24th) and Thursday at Mission and 16th) their sophisticated mobile command for a whole day. At press time, El Reportero, could not find out exactly what was this type of surveillance truck doing in the Mission, besides looking for small-time drug pushers and winos. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)
ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico is the only Hispanic-majority state in the nation. Latinos make up nearly 57 percent of its students while whites make up 29 percent.
The state’s public schools are failing to educate more than half of those Latino children. Put another way, Latino dropouts number almost exactly the same as all white students in the state.
To confront this looming education tsunami threatening New Mexico’s social and economic future, a number of concerned leaders have formed “The Latino/Hispano Education Improvement Task Force.”
They cite that Latinos make up nearly 70 percent of all of the state’s elementary schools students, foreshadowing the state’s continuing population shift.
Because of this situation, task force members say they’re convinced that the Latino education crisis will grow unless there is intervention to “forge bold and provocative redirection.”
The issue surfaced when the South West Organizing Project (SWOP) pointed out that the recent state legislative session included a bill to create an independent police department within the Albuquerque public school system.
SWOP organizer Emma Sandoval reacted immediately. “We don’t need a police department to be taking money away from educating our kids.’’
With mobilization and organizing by community leaders, the bill was killed in both houses.
Too often the nation’s failure to educate Hispanic students is blamed on poverty and their limited English skills. However, Laredo’ Texas—at one time billed as the “Poorest City in the Nation”—has one school district with 96.4 percent Latino enrollment, 71 percent are poor and 48 percent have limited English skills. Yet 87.7 percent of Latinos there receive a high school diploma in four years. In Albuquerque public schools, comprising the largest district in the state, only 37 percent of Latinos graduated in four years.
The Task Force has forged partnerships with statewide grassroots groups, unions, legislators, unions and administrators to sign on to their mission. Recently the group approached Gov.
Bill Richardson asking for endorsement of six initiatives that included declaring a state of crisis, making changes in the Department of Education and funding this community-based task force to train parents and educators throughout the state to redirect schools priorities.
The governor approved all six initiatives, promising stimulus monies to fund the project. Richardson also pledged to make education reform his priority for the remaining 17 months of his tenure as governor.
But, given that New Mexico has risen only from 50th to 48th position among U.S. states in its dropouts rate, there’s still a long ways to go. Task Force member Adrian Pedroza says he hopes that before Richardson’s eight-year term ends, change might finally get started. Hispanic Link.
