by Dr. Julian Nava, CNA’s “Yes on Prop 30 & No on Prop 32” Latino Chair
During the last ten years, state support for K–12 public education in California has been reduced to a situation in which:
California is first among all states with the largest number of pupils per teacher
California spends close to $2,900 less per student per year compared to the national average
All aspects of public education have been hurt by these cuts. The conditions of buildings,equipment, supplies and books have suffered. Administrators and counselors are overworked, and, of course, teachers have been overloaded. More and better work is being demanded with less support. Our national economy and our changing place in the world demand more from our schools
One result is that California schools are failing Latino and African American students who have higher dropout rates and lower than average numbers going to college.
What does this mean for our children’s education and their future? children? Your “yes” vote on Proposition 30 will help ensure a better future by providing more funding for our schools.
My 12 years of elected service on the Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District has given me some insights. For example, inadequate education
handicaps young individuals with life-long inabilities to perform up to their potential. Too many youngsters end up working in menial occupations with poor income. The handicaps can negatively impact the next generation.
Family life and individual efforts do play a vital role in shaping the future of our youth. But factors like broken homes, residential mobility, unemployment, and bad television are powerful forces shaping a youngster’s early learning. Schools are often the main positive influence while personal character is being shaped.
Many teachers have told me that they were swamped by demands they faced in class..rRecords show that many such pupils drod out of school or became delinquents, rather than college students. In California, about a third of Latino students don’t graduate in four years from high school..The result—low college attendance numbers.
Ever more skilled help is needed outside the classroom. My high school counselor, for one, steered me into auto shop to become a mechanic because my grades were only average. There was no effort taken to evaluate my full potential. Only while in the Navy during Word War II did I take an interest in learning. What would my counselor think if he saw me getting my Ph.D. at Harvard? A good public school education costs less than a poor one, and it produces more good things for everyone. So, please, vote “yes” on Proposition 30.
Dr. Julian Nava was the first Mexican American to graduate with a Ph.D. from Harvard, the first Latino to serve on the Los Angeles Unified School Board, and the first Latino to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.
