Latino parents and education

Immigrant education is in crisis. Young Latinos, especially men, are dropping out of high school in record numbers. In Massachusetts almost half of all Latino males and one third of Latino females never finish high school. According to a Harvard study, this trend reaches across the country and has taken on crisis proportions.

We all have a stake in this. Latino children soon will make up over half of all students in urban and rural public schools from California to Florida.

Experts focus on the schools. They point to the language difficulties of immigrant children and promote expanded ESL programs or total English immersion. All agree that more resources are needed: better teachers, longer school days, and access to tutors just at a time when school systems are cutting back.
None of these solutions assign much of a role to parents. Little mention is made of the Latino home where parents are thought to be too busy, or too ill-prepared, or too poor, to help their children graduate. Schools keep them informed and ask for their support but little else.

It’s a time to turn this thinking on its head.

Latino families must do the heavy lifting if their children are to do well in school. Of course, many already are. Just look at the millions of Latino children who do graduate and go to college. Nonetheless, Latino parents are worried. They see the dropout rates, the gangs, the low paying jobs and unemployment their children face.

But how do immigrants view the American education their children are receiving?

It probably looks pretty good compared to the schooling they got back in Latin America, where poor schools are a major contributor to poverty. These parents must congratulate themselves that just by immigrating they greatly improved their children’s education.

These parents may be more worried about supporting the children they left behind when they immigrated. It forces them to practice a kind of educational triage, allocating resources between here and there. They send billions home each year to support their remaining families. Of course, they also spend money here. But they have little extra to bolster the education of their children in the U.S.

For example, while Latinos swell membership in Catholic churches, they avoid Catholic schools which charge tuition. This is a shame. Parochial schools in inner cities are known to have much better results than public schools.

Programs are needed to encourage Latino parents to help their children stay in school. Parents have to become students. Schools should open their doors to all Latino parents to learn essential skills like English and to become partners with teachers in their children’s education. The Federal government has paid for this in the past and should do so again.

Incentives are needed for Latino parents to open education savings accounts for their children. These accounts could go to tuition or special classes and tutors, or to cover computer and internet expenses. The public and private sectors could contribute to these accounts on a matching basis to motivate parents to save. The government already has a matching fund program in housing which could be expanded for education.

Practical though these ideas may be, they may offend both anti and pro immigration forces. The conservatives will note no distinction made between documented and undocumented parents. True. When educational levels sink as low as those for Latinos are sinking now, it becomes a matter of life and death. Thankfully we treat everyone, legal or not, who comes into an emergency room to avoid an epidemic. Low Latino graduation rates have become and epidemic. Treat it.

Liberals will worry that money Latinos save for their children here will come at the expense of the money they remit to families back home. True. Like William Styron’s Sophie, the Latino mother and father may face a choice. Their children are perishing educationally both here and there. If we in America work with Latino parents to improve the education of their children here, we are clearly expanding their choices, not limiting them.

February 16th, 2009 by admin | Posted in immigration | Comments (0)

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