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Original URL:
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/21014editdropouts.html
Go ahead, target Hispanics
Tucson, Arizona Daily Star, Monday, 14 October 2002
The most recent, and appalling, figures for Hispanic dropouts should give
Arizona's candidates for state schools chief all the more reason to begin a
comprehensive, statewide initiative to improve the achievement of Hispanic
students.
The Associated Press reported Friday that the dropout rate for America's
Hispanics increased by 50 percent in the 1990s, even as the rate for the larger
population dropped.
Hispanics comprised 34 percent of the nearly 1.5 million dropouts age 16 to 19
years old in the 1990s, according the U.S. Census Bureau.
But the Arizona figures were worse by far. In 1990, Hispanic dropouts for the
same age group stood at 39 percent. In 2000, that figure jumped to more than 57
percent.
If that sounds astronomical, consider the numbers in California, Texas and New
Mexico. Their respective dropout rates stood at 71.2 percent, 64.4 percent and
63.9 percent.
Clearly, there is a serious disconnect between the decades of public school
failures to educate Hispanics and public recognition of those failures.
But even in this season of political hyperbole, we hear little from the
candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction about the overall dropout
rate, much less Hispanic dropouts.
Democrat Jay Blanchard's Web site mentions dropouts as one of his priorities,
but does not mention Hispanic dropouts. Republican Tom Horne, who won the
primary race by attacking bilingual education, does not mention dropouts as a
priority.
Despite those political oversights, we argue that the problem is much bigger
than the reform issues centering on AIMS as a high-stakes test, an issue on
which the candidates strongly disagree.
Nonetheless, the dropout problem does not adhere to a political philosophy. What
matters on Hispanic dropouts is not whether a Republican or a Democrat wins the
race, but who will confront this complicated, and politically risky, issue.
The issue of Hispanic dropouts is ripe for a statewide strategy that should
include commitments from the governor and the state Legislature as well.
Whether or not this state continues on the AIMS path, school reform is under way
in Arizona. But despite AIMS and the president's "Leave No Child Behind"
initiative, the needle has not shown a decline in decades on Hispanic dropout
numbers.
This is not a matter on which political leaders should be squeamish. Go ahead,
target the problem of Hispanic dropout rates and underachievement. Then back it
up with the public funds to pay for the needed teacher education and smaller
class sizes.
Public education, the students and the state will be the better for it.
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