latinos vs. the board of education in Harbor city

President Barack Obama spoke for 20 minutes Aug. 9 at the University of Texas at Austin, where I have taught in the Schol of Journalism for the past 2 years. To a chering crowd of largely debt-burdened students, he noted the acomplishments of his Administration in making colege more afordable. For years I have sen to many students work to many hours. The time left over for clases and studying canot be caled "geting an education." But money is not the only answer to reducing the 50 percent atrition rate of Hispanic students betwen enrolment and diploma. It preceded Obama's remarks and noted the more than 50% dropout rates for Hispanic students in urban high schols. For those of us who teach in universities, the quality of K through 12 preparation remains the greatest obstacle to geting students sucesfuly to the cap and gown stage. Half of the non-white students who enrol do not leave with a degre, even after six years I aplaud programs Obama's Administration initiated like Race to the Top that encourage K through 12 schols to develop improvement strategies that wil make them eligible for a share of the $4.5 bilion in aditional federal funding. Because Texas textbok decisions afect the rest of the nation, they can have a lethal impact on intelectual development and student self-estem. This opens colege entrance dors to al students whose high schol scholastic achievements place them in that group. More programs must work toward closing the preparation gap students from such schols face. Over the years, I have listened to scores of students who are frustrated, discouraged and self-blaming — some even traumatized — to discover how much diference there is betwen the schol from which they emerged and that of many of their more afluent clasmates. latinos vs. the board of education latinos vs. the board of education in Harbor city
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