HispanicVista Columnists

By Hector M. Barajas

Los Angeles is at a crossroads. In the past few months, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has met with community leaders and business groups about his plan to assume control of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The LAUSD and the rest of the state education system are in dire need of reform. Make no mistake; only 45% of LAUSD; 56.9% Fresno; 47.8% Oakland; 52.6% Sacramento; and 63.8% San Diego students are graduating high school in comparison to 71% for the rest of the state. One in four high school Math and English teachers are not trained to teach those subjects, and more than 100,000 students have yet to pass the California High School Exit Exam.

In California, where the state spends half of its $102 billion budget on education, student achievement on national standardized tests continues to be abysmal, just above Louisiana and Mississippi.

In October 2005, a report by Stanford University, UC Berkeley, American Institute for Research, and the EDSource found a pattern among high-performing, low-income school districts. High achievement schools have teachers with an average of more than five years of experience, high expectations, defined instructional improvement goals, and sufficient, up to date instructional materials.

In 1999, the California legislature put together a visionary education package that set specific standards for every grade level and requiring high school students to pass an exit exam that tests their knowledge of eighth grade math and tenth grade English. The exam provides students with five opportunities to retake the test and only a little more than half of the questions need to be answered correctly to pass.

In 2005, Assemblywoman Karen Bass (D-47) of Los Angeles introduced a bill that would have allowed students to graduate without passing the exam, a requirement that had already been pushed back from 2004 to 2006. The bill was eventually passed on a party line vote by the Democrat-controlled legislature. When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, he stated the bill would have sent a message to “students, parents, teachers, and administrators that we do not expect students to achieve at the highest levels.”

While politicians endlessly talk about putting children first, their actions defy their words.

After six years of failing to implement real reforms and playing politics with the future of our children, allowing politicians to hide their failures should not be acceptable to our community and our families. Politicians should be held accountable for their failure to ensure that students are provided with a quality education that will increase their chances of attending a university or vocational program. Our communities should focus on opening doors for our children, instead of letting politicians close them.
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Hector M. Barajas provides political analysis, coordinates Spanish media communication, and serves as the Deputy Political Director for the California Republican Party. Contact: hbarajas@cagop.org