HispanicVista Columnists

Education: A Three Part Series Report (Part Two)

The following report was written, revised and submitted by:
Manuel Hernández, Erika Robles and Burt Posner to the National Hispanic/ Latino American and Migrant Agenda

This report is the culmination of numerous hours of hard work by the members of the committee. After a series of regional meetings and a national conference, which was held in Chicago last June, the report was voted on and approved by the Summit participants. Recommendations are made at the end of the report. The report will be included in its entirety.

Part Two:

The reauthorization of child nutrition programs which includes the National School Lunch Program is a top priority for Hispanic/Latinos in this country. Some of these programs are the only meals that millions of children depend on to eat during the day. The present proposals seek to greatly undermine this program by imposing new needs criteria that will result in a substantial decrease of children who need this program for their sustenance.

Education funding in the past year has seen a decrease that does not take into account the severe ramifications such level of spending has on the increased enrollment of Hispanic/Latino students. The No Child Left Behind Act has drastically changed the federal bilingual program from a competitive to a state formula which is assumed to reach an increased amount of needy schools that use English language learners program (ELL). There has been a tremendous amount of disconcertion regarding the present level of federal funding committed to this program and it is recommended that the bill be revisited and scrutinized for a possible funding formula increase.

No program sets the life theme for education for young children of disadvantaged Hispanic/Latino families as the Federal Head Start program. Unfortunately, the lack of funding for this program in migrant workers’ communities has impacted very unfavorably on the pre-school children of this important constituency of the Hispanic/Latino community. Furthermore, there has been an insidious attempt to disqualify large number of pre- school students from this program by imposing arduous and unreasonable testing standards.    

School vouchers which will permit parents to apply for annual grants which will allow them to send their children to a school of their choice is very popular among Hispanic/Latino parents but not among those involved in school administration.

It is a subject that carries merit on both sides of the fence since we need to insure that public education does not suffer due to the filtering away of much needed funds especially to underserved school districts. However, the tilt toward the acceptance of school vouchers lies in the indisputable fact that no parent should be forced to allow their children to be used in a failed experiment that will impact profoundly on their children’s future. Until and when the public education system cleans their house, Hispanic/Latino Americans and migrant parents overwhelmingly support school choice voucher programs.

Nonetheless, acceptable formulas which would make refunding for school vouchers contingent upon the failing school districts ability to redeem themselves should be explored and if possible implemented. We recommend that the present formula be further improved by establishing criteria for proportional spending allocations and refunds to schools that improve their educational performances.

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Manuel Hernandez, a contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com), lives in Puerto Rico where he teaches school. He has a B.A. and MA Teaching English. He is a candidate for a PhD. He has just published a textbook titled, Latino/a Literature in The English Classroom (Editorial Plaza Mayor, 2003). For more information, e-mail him at mannyh32@puertoricans.com .