ROBERT J. CRISTANO, Ph.D
CALIFORNIA and the RISE OF THE LA RAZA MEXICAN
FASCIST WELFARE STATE
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/08/they-invading-horde-waving-their.html
Accounting for these differences reveals that California's
real poverty rate is 20.6 percent – the highest in
America, and nearly twice the national average of 12.7 percent.
"The public schools indoctrinate their young
charges to hate this country and the rule of law. Illegal aliens
continue overwhelming the state, draining California’s already depleted
public services while endangering our lives, the rule of law, and public
safety for all citizens."
“What is
driving that kind of growth? Over 10-12 million legal immigrants in California
were born abroad. Immigrants birth 900,000 babies annually. (www.cis.org, Dr.
Steven Camarata) Something in the range of 4 to 5 million illegal immigrants
live and work in California. Most do not pay taxes and others pay on forged
identification.”
CALIFORNIA: AMERICA'S FIRST
FAILED STATE
By Frosty Wooldridge
NewsWithViews.com
In 1965,
California housed a reasonable 15 million people. No traffic jams, little air
pollution and everyone spoke English. Route 66, from Chicago to Los Angeles,
ended at the Santa Monica Pier. Americans drove to Yosemite National Park for a
delightful weekend of hiking. Tony Bennett sang, “I left my heart in San
Francisco.”
California
ranked among the top five educational systems in America. Hollywood produced
incredible movies with Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, John Wayne, Cary Grant,
Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Jane Russell. I loved Gary
Cooper. Bing Crosby sang away our troubles and Bob Hope laughed away our cares.
Few criminals
plied the streets of cities in California. Everyone pledged their allegiance to
the United States of America and our stars and stripes. Skiers and surfers
plied the waves and moguls.
But in 1965,
something happened in the Halls of Congress called the “Immigration Reform Act”
pushed by the late Teddy Kennedy that changed the 200,000 annual incoming
immigrants from compatible countries to 1.2 million third world immigrants
annually. Senator Howard Metzenbaum said, “He let the flood gates wide open.”
Within 40
years, the United States galloped from 193 million people to 315 million in
2012. Kennedy’s bill will add another 138 million people by 2050-a scant 38
years from now. From a net exporter of oil, we now import 7 out of 10 barrels
at a cost of trillions of dollars. Kennedy’s egregious mistake changed the
ethnic, linguistic and cultural foundation of America into what we see in
California today. Also, Houston, Chicago, Miami, Detroit and New York.
His single
act changed the entire history of America from success to utter and growing
chaos on multiple levels.
California
reached a mind-blowing 38 million people in 2011. It adds 1,655 people net gain
daily. It adds over 400 vehicles 24/7 on its already crushed highways.
(Source:www.CapsWeb.org) California expects to add 20 million people within 30
years.
What is
driving that kind of growth? Over 10-12 million legal immigrants in California
were born abroad. Immigrants birth 900,000 babies annually. (www.cis.org, Dr.
Steven Camarata) Something in the range of 4 to 5 million illegal immigrants
live and work in California. Most do not pay taxes and others pay on forged
identification.
For every
added person, 25.4 acres of land must be destroyed to build homes, schools,
roads, malls and everything else to support that person. Known as “ecological
footprint”, it destroys wilderness and arable land. Thus, California leads the
country in animal and plant extinction rates.
Worse,
California with its seething, hungry human mob sucks up so much water from the
Colorado River that it fails to reach the ocean. As it adds another 20 million
people, it will destroy millions upon millions of acres of farmland.
On the
educational front, over 100 languages now paralyze California school systems.
From the top five states in education, California sank to the bottom five in
the United States. English has become a foreign language in California.
As to crime,
MS-13 gangs work with the 20,000 member “18th Street Gang” to power drugs, guns
and other contraband into the streets of America. Pot farms grow in national
parks.
As to
cultural breakdown, California now features major Mexican cock fighting
organizations throughout the state. Police caught one group of 300 Mexicans
last week as they roared and screamed at their blood sport:
In Freemont,
California, the call to worship for its dominant Muslim immigrant audience
heralds from the growing network of Mosques. Women’s rights degrade, female
genital mutilation grows, arranged marriages are commonplace and honor killings
take place. (Covered up by the liberal press, of course.)
Yosemite
features wall to wall crowds that make any chance for a wilderness experience a
hike into human dominated wilderness frenzy.
Most of the
children born in California today feature Mexican parents living on American
welfare. The EBT program or Electronic Benefits Transfers rewards single
mothers unlimited financial support for every baby they produce. And they
produce them by the tens of thousands. One mother said on a recording, “I get
everything for free…I don’t know why anyone would want to work in
America.”Write me at frostyw@juno.com and I will send you the live video of the
interview.
Thus,
California runs a $24 billion debt that cannot be paid. Ultimately, California
will bankrupt into chaos. It suffers from a Faustian Bargain that degrades into
Hobson’s Choice.
With so many
languages, so many ethnic tribes and so many cultures fighting for dominance in
California, how will it survive the next 20 million added people? The TV
journalist Bill Moyers asked the famed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov,
“Which is the greater danger - nuclear warfare or the population explosion?
“The latter
absolutely!” said Asimov. “To bring about nuclear war, someone has to DO
something; someone has to press a button. To bring about destruction by
overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished
values—there is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what
comes naturally—and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing."
Asimov
followed up with a penetrating reality check brought about by overpopulation:
“...democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it.
Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into
the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn't
matter if someone dies. The more people there are, the less one individual matters.”
California
will become our first third world country within our country. It pretty well
has reached that status in 2012. It’s a failing state like Mexico. Corruption
is a mechanism by which a third world country operates. Illiteracy drives a
failed state. California defines that reality.
I suspect
that Houston, Chicago, Detroit and other heavily dominated immigrant cities
will follow California. How come I see this “thing” accelerating and most
Americans apathetically sit by and do nothing? Our kids will curse our inaction
and historians will laugh at the stupidity of mass immigration, diversity and
multiculturalism as it took the greatest country in the world down to its
knees. Tragically, we did nothing to stop it.
To show you
where we’re headed in-depth, read Pat Buchanan’s epic work: Suicide of a
Superpower.
Listen to Frosty Wooldridge on Wednesdays as
he interviews top national leaders on his radio show "Connecting the
Dots" at www.themicroeffect.com at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Adjust tuning in
to your time zone.
REALITY
CHECK: MEXICANS WHO JUMP OUR BORDERS AND THEIR ANCHOR BABIES LOATHE ENGLISH AND
LITERACY AND HAVE TURNED CA'S LOWER EDUCATION INTO THE WORST IN THE NATION!
"FOR ITS PART, Just
Communities claims its trainings are aimed at closing what it
characterizes as an achievement gap between Latino and white students."
Here’s one teacher’s
report on the illegals in our schools.
TEACHER’S POSTING:
Subject: Cheap Labor This
should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or Independent
From a California schoolteacher.
"As you listen to
the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some
things that you should be aware of: I am in charge of the
English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high
school which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its students average
lower socioeconomic and income levels. Most of the schools you are hearing
about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc., where these
students are protesting, are also Title 1 schools. Title 1 schools are
on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I'm
not talking a glass of milk and roll -- but a full breakfast and cereal bar
with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud. The waste of
this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash
uneaten. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK) I estimate that well over
50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or
more DO have cell phones. The school also provides day care centers for the
unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class
without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family
watch their kids. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK) I was ordered to
spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year
even though there was little need for anything; my budget was already
substantial. I ended up buying new computers for the computer learning center,
half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the
appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free
education in America. (OUR TAX DOLLARS A T WORK) I have had to
intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist
of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less then 3 months who
raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them "Putas"
whores and throwing things that the teachers were in tears. Free medical, free
education, free food, day care etc., etc., etc. Is it any wonder they feel
entitled to not only be in this country but to demand rights, privileges and
entitlements? To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants
contribute to our society because they LIKE their gardener and housekeeper and
they like to pay less for tomatoes: spend some time in the real world of
illegal immigration and see the TRUE costs.
THE ONCE GOLDEN STATE of
CALIFORNA, NOW A LA RAZA MEX
WELFARE STATE, IS No. 48 OF 50
STATES IN LOWER EDUCATION!
MEXICANS LOATHE LITERACY AND
ENGLISH… SUCH APES THE
GRINGO WHOM THEY HATE!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/08/heres-reason-why-ca-schools-are-no.html
“Mexicans abhor
education. In their country, illiteracy dominates. As they arrive in our
country, only 9.6 percent of fourth generation Mexicans earn a high school
diploma. Mexico does not promote
educational values. This makes them the least educated of any Americans or
immigrants. The rate of illiteracy in Mexico stands at 63 percent." FROSTY
WOOLRIDGE
“Third-generation Latinos are more often
disconnected — that is, they neither attend school nor find employment.” Kay S. Hymowitz
IMPORTING ILLITERACY
TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED WE NEED
ENDLESS HORDES OF ILLITERATES JUMPING OUR BORDERS AND JOBS!
That really build a nation? Or
just generate “cheap” labor for fast food operators?
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/11/daca-fails-loathing-of-literacy-and.html
HOME TO
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, NANCY PELOSI, KAMALA HARRIS AND GAVIN NEWSOM
Adios, Sanctuary La Raza Welfare State of California
A fifth-generation Californian laments his state’s ongoing economic collapse.
By Steve Baldwin
American Spectator
What’s clear is that the producers are leaving the state and the takers are coming in. Many of the takers are illegal aliens, now estimated to number over 2.6 million (BLOG: THE NUMBER IS CLOSER TO 15 MILLION ILLEAGLS). The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion (DATED: NOW ABOUT $35 BILLION YEARLY AND THAT IS ON THE STATE LEVEL ONLY. COUNTIES PAY OUT MORE) on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education, Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs.
A fifth-generation Californian laments his state’s ongoing economic collapse.
By Steve Baldwin
American Spectator
What’s clear is that the producers are leaving the state and the takers are coming in. Many of the takers are illegal aliens, now estimated to number over 2.6 million (BLOG: THE NUMBER IS CLOSER TO 15 MILLION ILLEAGLS). The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion (DATED: NOW ABOUT $35 BILLION YEARLY AND THAT IS ON THE STATE LEVEL ONLY. COUNTIES PAY OUT MORE) on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education, Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs.
Liberals
claim they more than make that up with taxes paid, but that’s simply not true.
It’s not even close. FAIR estimates illegal aliens in California contribute
only $1.21 billion in tax revenue, which means they cost California $20.6
billion, or at least $1,800 per household.
Nonetheless, open border advocates, such as Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg, claim illegal aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to support such an assertion. As the Center for Immigration Studies has documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor, uneducated, and with few skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens and then granting them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit California’s economy? If illegal aliens were contributing to the economy in any meaningful way, California, with its 2.6 million illegal aliens, would be booming.
Furthermore, the complexion of illegal aliens has changed with far more on welfare and committing crimes than those who entered the country in the 1980s. Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. Granted, those statistics are old, but if you talk to any California law enforcement officer, they will tell you it’s much worse today. The problem is that the Brown administration will not release any statewide data on illegal alien crimes. That would be insensitive. And now that California has declared itself a “sanctuary state,” there is little doubt this sends a message south of the border that will further escalate illegal immigration into the state.
Nonetheless, open border advocates, such as Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg, claim illegal aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to support such an assertion. As the Center for Immigration Studies has documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor, uneducated, and with few skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens and then granting them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit California’s economy? If illegal aliens were contributing to the economy in any meaningful way, California, with its 2.6 million illegal aliens, would be booming.
Furthermore, the complexion of illegal aliens has changed with far more on welfare and committing crimes than those who entered the country in the 1980s. Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. Granted, those statistics are old, but if you talk to any California law enforcement officer, they will tell you it’s much worse today. The problem is that the Brown administration will not release any statewide data on illegal alien crimes. That would be insensitive. And now that California has declared itself a “sanctuary state,” there is little doubt this sends a message south of the border that will further escalate illegal immigration into the state.
"If the racist "Sensenbrenner Legislation" passes the US
Senate, there is no doubt that a massive civil disobedience movement will
emerge. Eventually labor union power can merge with the immigrant civil rights
and "Immigrant Sanctuary" movements to enable us to either
form a new political party or to do heavy duty reforming of the existing
Democratic Party. The next and final steps would follow and that is to elect
our own governors of all the states within Aztlan."
Indeed, California goes out of its way to attract illegal aliens. The state has even created government programs that cater exclusively to illegal aliens. For example, the State Department of Motor Vehicles has offices that only process driver licenses for illegal aliens. With over a million illegal aliens now driving in California, the state felt compelled to help them avoid the long lines the rest of us must endure at the DMV. And just recently, the state-funded University of California system announced it will spend $27 million on financial aid for illegal aliens. They’ve even taken out radio spots on stations all along the border, just to make sure other potential illegal border crossers hear about this program. I can’t afford college education for all my four sons, but my taxes will pay for illegals to get a college education.
Indeed, California goes out of its way to attract illegal aliens. The state has even created government programs that cater exclusively to illegal aliens. For example, the State Department of Motor Vehicles has offices that only process driver licenses for illegal aliens. With over a million illegal aliens now driving in California, the state felt compelled to help them avoid the long lines the rest of us must endure at the DMV. And just recently, the state-funded University of California system announced it will spend $27 million on financial aid for illegal aliens. They’ve even taken out radio spots on stations all along the border, just to make sure other potential illegal border crossers hear about this program. I can’t afford college education for all my four sons, but my taxes will pay for illegals to get a college education.
California's
Rendezvous With Reality
https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2019/02/28/californias-rendezvous-with-reality-n2542316
California politicians vie with each other to prove
their open-borders bona fides in an effort to appeal to the estimated 27
percent of Californians who were not born in the United States.
But the health, educational and legal
costs associated with massive illegal immigration are squeezing the budget. About a
third of the California budget goes to the state's Medicare program, Medi-Cal.
Half the state's births are funded by Medi-Cal, and in nearly a third of those
state-funded births, the mother is an undocumented immigrant.
The Gallup analytics estimate is that 42
million want to come to the U.S.
That is one hell of a big number, particularly since much of the
data suggest that the U.S. already houses some 30 million illegal immigrants.
Four or five million more will increase the illegal population by 12% to 17% in
just one year, something that will make assimilation for migrants already here
in migrant enclaves that much harder. Migrant
enclaves already are at the top of the U.S. lists for bad places to live -
10 of the 50 worst places in America to live according to this list are in California, and all of them are famous for their
illegal populations. The newcomers will
need social services, given that most will not have the requisite language,
education or skills to succeed here. Many
will be unwed mothers, which ensures even here that they will be assimilating
into the underclass. The cost to taxpayers to feed, house, educate,
medically treat and jail the newcomers will run into billions.
Pew
Research: Vast Majority of Illegals, 4-in-9 Legal Immigrants, Not English
Proficient
Associated Press
JOHN BINDER
28 May 2019539
2:28
The vast majority of illegal aliens and a
sizeable portion of legal immigrants living in the United States are not
proficient in the English language, a survey finds.
A Pew Research Center study finds that an
overwhelming majority of the 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S.
do not define themselves as being proficient in English. Despite a slight
uptick in the number of illegal aliens who claim they are English proficient,
still only about 34 percent said they are proficient in English.
Likewise, only about 57 percent of
legal immigrants — that is, legal foreign-born residents whom the federal
government has admitted to the country — are proficient in English, according
to the Pew Research study.
Illegal aliens arriving to the U.S.
from Mexico, Northern Triangle countries, and other parts of Latin America have
exceptionally low English proficiency rates. For example, only about 25 percent
of illegal aliens from Mexico said they were English proficient.
Similarly, only 22 percent of
illegal aliens from the Northern Triangle said they were proficient in English,
as well a minority of 43 percent of illegal aliens from other Latin American
countries.
Overall, Pew Research estimates that
only about 3.4 million illegal aliens of the entire illegal alien population
said they were English proficient.
As Breitbart News has chronicled,
foreign language-speakers have increasingly made up the U.S. population, forcing Americans to adapt in
their day-to-day lives and work environment to non-English atmospheres.
For example, nearly half of all
residents in the country’s biggest cities speak a foreign language at home,
according to research by the Center
for Immigration Studies.
Every year, a new flow of illegal
aliens either cross the U.S.-Mexico border or overstay their visas and compete
against the majority of working and middle class Americans for oftentimes
entry-level and generally lower wage jobs. Americans are not only subjected to
this illegal labor market competition but also must compete against an
additional 1.2 million legal immigrants who are admitted to the U.S. annually.
Pew
Research: Vast Majority of Illegals, 4-in-9 Legal Immigrants, Not English
Proficient
Associated Press
JOHN BINDER
BLOG: MEXICANS ARE LOATHE
TO SPEAK ENGLISH AS IT APES THE GRINGO WHOM THEY ALSO LOATHE.
The vast majority of illegal aliens and a sizeable portion of
legal immigrants living in the United States are not proficient in the English
language, a survey finds.
A Pew Research Center study finds that an
overwhelming majority of the 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S.
do not define themselves as being proficient in English. Despite a slight
uptick in the number of illegal aliens who claim they are English proficient,
still only about 34 percent said they are proficient in English.
Likewise, only about 57 percent of
legal immigrants — that is, legal foreign-born residents whom the federal
government has admitted to the country — are proficient in English, according
to the Pew Research study.
Illegal aliens arriving to the U.S.
from Mexico, Northern Triangle countries, and other parts of Latin America have
exceptionally low English proficiency rates. For example, only about 25 percent
of illegal aliens from Mexico said they were English proficient.
Similarly, only 22 percent of
illegal aliens from the Northern Triangle said they were proficient in English,
as well a minority of 43 percent of illegal aliens from other Latin American
countries.
Overall, Pew Research estimates that
only about 3.4 million illegal aliens of the entire illegal alien population
said they were English proficient.
As Breitbart News has chronicled,
foreign language-speakers have increasingly made up the U.S. population, forcing Americans to adapt in their day-to-day lives and work environment to
non-English atmospheres.
For example, nearly half of all
residents in the country’s biggest cities speak a foreign language at home,
according to research by the Center
for Immigration Studies.
Every year, a new flow of illegal
aliens either cross the U.S.-Mexico border or overstay their visas and compete
against the majority of working and middle- class Americans for oftentimes
entry-level and generally lower wage jobs. Americans are not only subjected to
this illegal labor market competition but also must compete against an
additional 1.2 million legal immigrants who are admitted to the U.S. annually.
Immigration Is the Elephant in the Room in L.A. School Strike
https://www.cis.org/Camarota/Immigration-Elephant-Room-LA-School-Strike?utm_source=E-mail+Updates&utm_campaign=7503f20bde-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_08_27_04_17_COPY_01&utm_m
The recently
settled teachers' strike in the Los Angeles Unified School district was a
bitter dispute about resources, with class size and lack of staff support
taking center stage. The tables below show that immigration's impact on the
school system is enormous. Immigration has added large numbers of students to
the county, but at the same time a very large share of both legal and illegal
immigrants have modest levels of education and almost certainly pay less in
taxes than natives who have higher levels of education and incomes. Immigration
has also added significantly to the number of public-school students in the
county who live in poverty and speak a language other than English at home.
Overall enrollment has not increased in the district in recent years, but
immigration has reduced the proportion of students whose families pay
sufficient taxes to cover education costs, creating the ongoing strains on the
district budget.
Although it
is not possible to use Census Bureau data to look at only residents of L.A.
Unified, it is possible to examine Los Angeles County to gain insight into
what's happening. We identify legal and illegal immigrants based on the
methodology used in this report. The data
comes from the public-use files of the Census Bureau's 2012 to 2016 American
Community Survey.
Among the
findings for L.A. County:
·
Public-school
students from immigrant-headed households comprise 58 percent of public-school
students in Los Angeles County (Table 2).
·
Of
all students in the county, 22 percent are from illegal-headed households and
36 percent are from legal immigrant households (Table 2).
·
The
poverty rate for students from both legal and illegal immigrant households is
more than 50 percent higher than that of those from native-headed households
(Table 1).
·
Of
students in poverty, 70 percent are from immigrant households — 28 percent from
illegal households and 42 percent from legal households (Table 2).
·
Of
students who speak a language other than English at home, 82 percent are from
immigrant households — 35 percent from illegal households and 47 percent from
legal households (Table 2).
·
47
percent of illegal-immigrant-headed households are headed by a person who did
not graduate high school; the figure is 30 percent for legal-immigrant-headed
households. This compares to 7 percent of native-headed households (Table 3).
·
The
average income of illegal-immigrant-headed households is only 58 percent that
of native-headed households; for legal-immigrant-headed households it is 79
percent of native-headed households (Table 4).
·
Illegal-immigrant-headed
households have three times as many students in public school on average as
native-headed households; for legal-immigrant-headed households it is 50
percent higher. (Table 4).
·
Illegal
immigrants (ages 25-64) are more likely to hold a job (76 percent) than natives
(74 percent). The rate for legal immigrants is somewhat lower at 70 percent
(Table 5).
Pollak: Educating Illegal Aliens and Their Children Costs L.A.
Schools Hundreds of Millions Per Year
The ongoing strike by the United Teachers Los
Angeles (UTLA) union against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is
about teacher pay, classroom size, support staff, and especially charter
schools, which the union says take money away from the district.
Left unspoken, however, is the cost
of educating illegal aliens, and their children — which could amount to
hundreds of millions of dollars per year, if not billions, experts say.
Steven A. Camarota, director of
research, at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Breitbart News on Friday
that “between one-fifth and one-fourth of the students in LAUSD are the
children of illegal immigrants — though most of those were born in the U.S.” He
said that a smaller percentage of the students (“in the single digits”) are
illegal immigrants themselves.
With roughly 700,000 students in the district, at a cost of over $13,000 per student, that means the district could be spending about $1.8 billion
annually on educating the children of illegal immigrants. The total annual
expenses for the LAUSD in 2017-2018 amounted to $7.52 billion.
The Federation for American
Immigration Reform (FAIR) put the cost of educating the children of illegal
aliens statewide at over $12 billion in a 2014 study. A significant proportion of those students are served by the
LAUSD.
Twenty years before, with a much
lower population of illegal aliens, the U.S. General Accounting Office — in a
study prepared for then-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) estimated that California
spent $1.6 billion on educating the children of illegal aliens. The cost has
increased almost tenfold as the “undocumented” population has grown.
The exact numbers are elusive, but
even a conservative estimate would put the costs of educating the children of
illegal aliens in the LAUSD in the same ballpark as the costs of charter
schools, which unions complain cost the district some $600 million per year in lost
funding.
The U.S. Supreme Court held in Plyler v. Doe (1982) that students could not be denied a free public
education on the basis of their immigration status.
However, the continued arrival of
illegal aliens has arguably strained the public education system — and will
continue to do so unless the country’s borders are secured.
Yet no one in L.A. seems to be
discussing the problem.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior
Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak
Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story
of a Revolution, which is available from
Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Least-Educated
State: California No. 1 in Percentage of Residents 25 and Older Who Never
Finished 9th Grade; No. 50 in High School Graduates
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/least-educated-state-california-no-1-percentage-residents-25-and
(CNSNews.com) - California ranks No. 1 among the 50 states for
the percentage of its residents 25 and older who have never completed ninth
grade and 50th for the percentage who have graduated from high school, according
to new data from the Census Bureau.
Texas
ranks No. 2 for the percentage of its residents 25 and older who have never
completed ninth grade and 49th for the percentage who have graduated from high
school.
9.7
percent of California residents 25 and older, the
Census Bureau says,
never completed ninth grade. Only 82.5 percent graduated from high school.
8.7
percent of Texas
residents 25 and older never completed ninth grade, and only 82.8 percent
graduated from high school.
California
and Texas—while having the highest percentages of residents 25 and older who
never finished ninth grade and the lowest percentages who graduated from high
school—are the nation’s two most populous states.
In
fact, the 2,510,370 California residents 25 and older who, according to the
Census Bureau, never finished ninth grade outnumber
the entire populations of 15 other states.
In
California, children are required to attend school from six years of age until
they are 18. “California’s compulsory education laws require children between
six and eighteen years of age to attend school, with a limited number of
exceptions,” says
the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, an agency of the California
state government. (The National
Center for Education Statistics also indicates that children in California
are compelled by law to attend school from 6 to 18 years of age.)
Massachusetts
ranks No. 1 for the percentage of its residents 25 and older—42.1 percent--who
have earned at least a bachelor’s degree.
These
rankings are based on data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey
5-year estimates, which were released this month.
In
the survey, the
Census Bureau asks respondents to specify the level of educational attainment for each
individual in their household. The question is: “What is the highest degree or
level of school this person has COMPLETED. Mark (X) ONE box. If currently
enrolled, mark the previous grade or highest degree received.”
The
survey form then offers the respondent multiple options ranging from “no
schooling completed” to “professional degree” or “doctorate degree.” If an
individual has not earned a high school degree, the respondent is asked to
specify the highest grade the individual actually completed—ranging from
“nursery school” through “12th grade—NO DIPLOMA.”
The
Census Bureau’s American Community Survey queries a random sample of more than
3.5 million U.S. households each year and publishes a one-year estimate for
each year. The five-year estimate, the bureau says, “is a weighted average of
the five one-year estimates.” The newly released five-year estimates are for
the period from 2013 through 2017.
Nationwide,
5.4 percent of residents 25 and older have never finished ninth grade,
according to the latest five-year estimates.
Ten
states exceeded the nationwide level of residents 25 and older who have never
finished ninth grade. These include: California (9.7 percent), Texas (8.7
percent), New York (6.5 percent), New Mexico (6.5 percent), Kentucky (6.1
percent), Nevada (5.9 percent), Arizona (5.9 percent), Mississippi (5.6 percent),
Rhode Island (5.5 percent), and Louisiana (5.4 percent).
Wyoming—with
1.8 percent—had nation’s smallest percentage of residents 25 and older who
never finished ninth grade.
In
seventeen states, the percentage of residents 25 and older who at least graduated
from high school was less than the nationwide percentage of 87.3 percent.
These
seventeen states included: California (82.5 percent), Texas (82.8 percent),
Mississippi (83.4 percent), Louisiana (84.3 percent), New Mexico (85 percent),
Kentucky (85.2 percent), Alabama (85.3 percent), Arkansas (85.6 percent),
Nevada (85.8 percent), West Virginia (85.9 percent), New York (86.1 percent),
Georgia (86.3 percent), Tennessee (86.5 percent), South Carolina (86.5
percent), Arizona (86.5 percent), North Carolina (86.9 percent), and Rhode
Island (87.3 percent).
Nationwide,
30.9 percent of residents 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
In
nineteen states, the percentage with a bachelor’s degree or higher exceeds the
national percentage. These nineteen states include both No. 14 California
(32.6) and No. 9 New York (35.3), which respectively ranked No.1 and No. 3 for
the percentage of residents 25 and older who never finished ninth grade.
The
ten states with the highest percentage of residents 25 and older who earned a
bachelor’s degree or higher are: Massachusetts (42.1 percent), Colorado (39.4
percent), Maryland (39 percent), Connecticut (38.4 percent), New Jersey (38.1
percent), Virginia (37.6 percent), Vermont (36.8 percent), New Hampshire (36 percent),
New York (35.3 percent), and Minnesota (34.8 percent).
West
Virginia—at 19.9 percent—has the lowest percentage of residents with a
bachelor’s degree or higher.
In
another seven states, the percentage of residents who have a bachelor’s degree
or higher is less than 25 percent. They are: Mississippi (21.3 percent),
Arkansas (22 percent), Kentucky (23.2 percent), Louisiana (23.4 percent),
Nevada (23.7 percent), Alabama (24.5 percent) and Oklahoma (24.8 percent).
In
California, according
to the Census Bureau’s five-year estimates, the resident population 25 and
older was 25,950,818. Of those individuals, 2,510,370—or 9.7 percent--never
completed ninth grade.
Another
2,033,160 California residents 25 and older completed the ninth, tenth,
eleventh or twelfth grade—but did not earn a high school diploma. Thus, a total
of 4,543,530 California residents 25 and older—or a nation-leading 17.5
percent--have never graduated from high school.
Those
2,510,370 individuals 25 and older in California who never finished 9th grade
outnumber the entire populations of 15 other states, according
to the Census Bureau’s latest population estimates. These include: Alaska
(737,438), Delaware (967,171), Hawaii (1,420,491), Idaho (1,754,208), Maine
(1,338,404), Montana (1,062,305), Nebraska (1,929,268), New Hampshire
(1,356,458), New Mexico (2,095,428), North Dakota (760,077), Rhode Island
(1,057,315), South Dakota (882,235), Vermont (626,299), West Virginia
(1,805,832), and Wyoming (577,737).
In
Texas, the
resident population 25 and older was 17,454,431. Of those individuals,
1,513,995—or 8.7 percent—never completed ninth grade. That outnumbers the
populations of 11 states.
Is California the next Detroit?
Most Californians live within about 50
miles of its majestic coastline — for good reason. The California coastline is
blessed with arguably the most desirable climate on Earth, magnificent beaches,
a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and natural harbors in San Diego, Long
Beach and San Francisco. There is no mystery why California’s population and
economy boomed after the Second World War.
The Golden State was aptly named. Its
Gold Rush of 1849 was followed a century later by massive growth in the 1950s
and 60s. Education in California became the envy of the world. Stanford became
the Harvard of the West. A college education at the University of California
and California State University systems was inexpensive. The Community College
system that fed its universities was ostensibly free.
California’s public school system led the
nation in innovation and almost all of its classrooms were new. The highway
system that moved California’s automobile-driven commerce eliminated the need
for public transportation systems like New York and Chicago. The fertile soil
of the Central Valley became the breadbasket of the world.
The next golden wave in the 1980s grew
from former orchards south of San Francisco known as Silicon Valley. Intel and
other companies led the world’s computer and software revolution. In the 1990s,
the dot-com revolution brought immense wealth to more Californians. Its
innovators, Google, Apple and others, ushered in the Internet Era. The 2000s
brought the greatest housing and mortgage boom in the nation’s history, with
innovation centered in Orange County. California was truly the Golden State.
Why then would the author have the
temerity to ask, “When did Californians become Stupid?” And: Is California the
next Detroit?
Unique
oblivion
Californians, due to their golden
history, live in unique oblivion. When the Tea Party movement caused a
political tsunami that swept more than 60 incumbents from political office in
2010, the wave petered out at California’s state line. There was no effect on
the 2010 election that saw Democrats take every elected office in the state.
California voters rejected Meg Whitman,
the billionaire founder of Ebay, in favor of Jerry Brown. Gov. Brown signed
into law a “high-speed rail” bill that will spend $6 billion (the state does
not have) to build a train between Fresno and Bakersfield — not Los Angeles and
San Francisco, as promised. There was little outcry.
California has a $16 billion deficit that
no one seems to notice. Brown’s budget “assumes” that California voters will
pass massive tax increases on themselves. If they do not, the 2013 deficit
becomes a mind-numbing $20 billion. The budget, mandated to balance by the
Calfornia Constitution, has been billions in the red for 10 straight years. How
could Californians re-elect the same politicians year after year that produce
budgets with multi-billion dollar deficits?
To protect the endangered Delta Smelt, a
fish known better as bait, water has been diverted from the Central Valley to
the Pacific Ocean. Orchards in the Central Valley have been allowed to wither
and die, resulting in unemployment in the Central Valley as high as 40 percent.
Imagine Californians living in what was the breadbasket of American now living
on food stamps. California voters rejected Republican Carly Fiorina for U.S.
Senator in 2010. She ran Hewlett Packard. Instead, they re-elected Democratic
Sen. Barbara Boxer ,who vowed to protect the Delta Smelt at the expense of the
Central Valley.
California has 519 state agencies, like
the state Blueberry Commission, that pay each of their commissioners more than
$100,000 per year. State politicians, when asked to make cuts, fire teachers
and fire fighters to inflict maximum pain on its citizens, while leaving these
patronage commissions intact. State politicians have elevator operators in the
state capital to push the buttons for them. Their solution for the overcrowding
of the state’s prisons is to release inmates or transfer them to local
facilities in already bankrupt cities. Yet, they are re-elected by California
voters in numbers consistently higher than the old Soviet Politburo.
California’s public education system,
once the envy of the world, now ranks 49th in the nation. Its business climate, according to 650
CEOs measured by Chief Executive Magazine, ranked dead last. Apple will take
3,600 new jobs to Austin, Tex. at its $280,000,000 new facility. Texas ranked
first in the same survey.
California unemployment is consistently
higher than 10 percent of its workforce, but it’s under-employed, according to
a Gallup poll, is 20 percent. There are few jobs for college students who
graduate with as much as $100,000 in student loans. Despite the overwhelming
evidence that bad public policy is chasing away jobs, the same state
politicians are sent back to Sacramento every two years.
In the last two months, three California
cities have declared bankruptcy. Compton is next. More will follow. Some cities
will simply cease to exist due to $500 million in unfunded pension obligations
they simply cannot meet.
The unfunded pension obligations, now
swamping California cities, were approved by these same politicians whose
re-elections are financed by the unions they serve. Nine years ago, outraged
Californians recalled Gov. Gray Davis from office for excessive spending and
crony capitalism. Nothing has changed a decade later. Its residents believe the
golden state will be golden forever. It may not be the case.
Detroit
History has an unpleasant precedent known
as Detroit. In the 1950s, Detroit was a major American city with a dynamic
labor force built on the manufacturing miracle that won World War II. Its
factories quickly converted tanks, planes and artillery shells into trucks,
automobiles and refrigerators that baby boom families demanded. Everyone had a
good paying job. Detroit Iron had no competition. Its burgeoning middle class
was the model of the world with excellent public schools and universities. It
was the 4th largest city in America with 2 million inhabitants, with the
world’s most dominant industry — the automobile.
Detroit in 2012 is a shadow of that once
great metropolis. Its population has shrunk to 714,000. There
are 200,000 abandoned buildings in the derelict city. The average price of a
home has fallen to $5,700, unthinkable in California terms. Unemployment stands
at 28.9 percent. It has a $300 million deficit. Its public education system, in
receivership, is a disgrace, producing more inmates than graduates. The jobs
have long ago abandoned Detroit for places like South Carolina and Alabama, far
hungrier than Detroit’s leaders who believed the gravy train would never end.
In 2006, the teacher’s union forced the
politicians to reject a $200 million offer from a Detroit philanthropist to
build 15 new charter schools. The mayor has proposed razing 40 square miles of
the 138 square miles of this once great American city, returning it to
farmland. Even such a draconian plan may not be enough to save the city from
itself.
If a hurricane hit Detroit, more of us
would know of this tragedy in our midst, but this fate was man-made and not
wrought by nature. Detroit has had one party rule for more than 50 years. Louis
C. Miriani served from September 12, 1957 to January 2, 1962 as Detroit’s last
Republican mayor. Since that time, the Democrats have ruled the Motor City.
John Dingell,
Democrat congressman for the 15th District outside Detroit, has served
since 1956. His father was the congressman there from 1930 to 1956. Despite the
disastrous decline of their city, Detroit voters send him back to Congress
every two years.
One-party
rule
Similarly, California now has one-party
rule. The Democrats of California did not need a single Republican vote to pass
their budget. They now own the Golden State’s fate. The politicians’ plan to
address the nation’s largest deficit is to raise taxes instead of cutting
spending. If the Proposition 30 tax increase passes, the deficit would drop
from $20 billion to a mere $12 billion.
Democrats have done nothing to cure the
systemic problems of a bloated bureaucracy. Brown, referring to the state’s
highway system, once said, “If we do not build it, they will not come.”
Caltrans stopped building highways under Brown, but the people kept coming. Now
37 million Californians are locked in traffic jams each day.
Brown was rewarded for such prescience
with re-election as Governor. California’s egotistical politicians passed AB
32, the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2006. Dan Sperling, an appointee to the
California Air Resources Board, and a professor of engineering and
environmental science at UC Davis, is the lead advocate on the board for a “low
carbon fuel standard.” The powerful state agency charged with implementing AB
32 and other climate control measures claims the low carbon fuel standard will
“only” raise gasoline prices $.30 gallon in 2013. But The California Political
Review reported implementation of these the policies will raise prices by $1.00
per gallon.
Detroit was once the most prosperous
manufacturing city in the world. Will California follow Detroit down a
tragic path to ruin? In 1950, no one fathomed the Detroit of 2010. In 1970,
when foreign imports started to make a foothold, the unions and their bought
and paid for politicians resisted any change.
In the 1990’s, as manufacturers fled to
Alabama and South Carolina, the unions and their political lackeys held firm
even as good jobs slipped away. No one in Detroit envisioned their future, even
as schools declined, the jobs withered and the once proud city deteriorated in
front of their own eyes.
No
longer golden
California was once the Golden State.
Today, it is no longer so golden. Its schools are in decline. Its business
climate is equally dismal. Its cities are facing economic ruin, with exploding
pension obligations and a declining tax base. Housing prices have fallen 30 to
60 percent across the state, evaporating trillions of dollars of equity.
Unemployment remains stubbornly high and under-employment is rife. The Central
Valley is in a depression, with 40 percent unemployment. Do our politicians
need any more signs?
Brown’s budget will first slash money to
schools and raise tuition on its students, while leaving all 519 state agencies
intact. He apparently will protect political patronage at all costs. Jobs, and
job creators, are fleeing the state. Intel, Apple, Google and others are
expanding out of the state. The best and brightest minds are leaving for Texas
and North Carolina. The signs are everywhere. State revenues are declining
during many years. Meanwhile, the voters sleep and blindly send the same cast
of misfits back to Sacramento each year — just as Detroit did before them.
The beaches are still beautiful. The
mountains are still snow capped and the climate is still the envy of the world.
Detroit never had that. But will California’s physical attributes be enough? If
the people of California want to glimpse their future, they need look no
farther than once proud City of Detroit. It can happen here.
Robert J Cristiano, Ph.D., is
the Real Estate Professional in Residence at Chapman University in Orange,
Calif. and a Senior Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco.
More Evidence on Third-Generation Outcomes
Grandchildren of Mexican immigrants compared to grandchildren of
European immigrants
Will the children and grandchildren of low-skill immigrants
eventually rise to the same socioeconomic level as natives? In a report published last fall,
I investigated this question using the NLSY-97, a survey of people born between
1980 and 1984 that includes their grandparents' places of birth. The
grandparent information helps identify a true "third generation,"
meaning U.S.-born people who have two U.S.-born parents but at least one
foreign-born grandparent.
Because the largest and most consistently low-skill immigrant
group has come from Mexico, my report compared the grandchildren of Mexican
immigrants to a reference group of white Americans from the "fourth-plus
generation" – meaning U.S. born with two U.S.-born parents and four
U.S.-born grandparents. The results indicated that Americans with at least one
Mexican-born grandparent lag significantly behind on measures of education and
income. In other words, assimilation of this initially low-skill group is still
not complete by the third generation.
After the Great Wave of immigration ended in the 1920s,
Americans developed some romantic notions about assimilation. No matter where
immigrants come from, no matter what skills they bring with them, no matter
what circumstances they find themselves in upon arrival, their children and
grandchildren will supposedly converge to the socioeconomic level of the
pre-existing population. Desirable as that outcome may be, the convergence is
often incomplete. The results for third-generation Mexican Americans described
above are perhaps the starkest illustration.
Differential levels of assimilation are also evident when
comparing the grandchildren of immigrant groups who arrived in the same time
period. After the U.S. and Mexico, the most common grandparent place of birth
in the NLSY-97 is Europe. (Unfortunately, no specific countries in Europe are
identified in the data.) This post provides the results of a new analysis comparing
two third-generation groups -- the grandchildren of immigrants from Mexico, and
the grandchildren of immigrants from Europe.
Based on parental data from the NLSY-97 and year-of-arrival
data from the 1970 census, most grandparents of the NLSY-97's European third
generation arrived in the U.S. between 1910 and 1950. Unlike Mexican
immigrants, who were almost uniformly low-skill, European immigrants in that
time frame were more mixed. They include largely low-skill Southern and Eastern
European immigrants who arrived before the 1924 restriction, but also some
educated refugees from Central Europe during the Nazi period, along with both
skilled and unskilled immigrants from the post-war era.
The table below compares the grandchildren of Mexican
immigrants and the grandchildren of European immigrants on measures of
educational attainment, test scores, work time, and income. Although the two
groups graduated from high school at about the same rate, the grandchildren of
European immigrants have more than double the rate of college completion. They
also scored higher on the AFQT, which the military uses to assess math and
verbal skills. Similarly, although weeks worked are roughly equivalent for both
groups, the grandchildren of European immigrants significantly out-earn their
counterparts with Mexican-born grandparents.
On most measures, the European third generation even slightly
outperforms the reference group of fourth-plus generation whites. Clearly, not
all immigrant groups end up in the same place by the third generation.
For details on the
data set and the calculations, please see my report from last
fall. Also note that for simplicity and sample size considerations, the ethnic
and cross-sectional samples of the Mexican third generation are combined in the
table above.
Topics: Education
Data:
98K Illegal Aliens Graduating from U.S. High Schools Every Year
JOHN BINDER
Nearly 100,000 illegal alien teenagers are graduating
from American high schools every year, new research concludes.
The latest study from the Migration
Policy Institute (MPI) reveals the growing number of illegal alien teenagers
who are enrolled and graduating from U.S. high schools. Researchers find that
about 98,000 illegal aliens every year graduate from high schools across the
country.
Close to 30,000 of those illegal
aliens, annually, are graduating from high schools in the sanctuary state of
California which has the largest illegal alien population, totaling at least
2.2 million. About 27 percent of all illegal aliens graduating high school
every year are doing so in California, researchers found.
(Migration Policy Institute)
Similarly, in Texas and Florida,
each with significant foreign-born and illegal populations, have thousands of
illegal alien high school graduates every year. In Texas, about 17,000 illegal
aliens graduate from high school every year while Florida graduates about 5,000
illegal alien high schoolers annually.
New York, New Jersey, and Illinois
each graduate about 4,000 illegal aliens from high school every year. Overall,
15 states are home to more than 80 percent of all illegal alien high school
graduates.
As Breitbart News recently reported,
current illegal immigration levels could bring more than one million child border crossers to the United
States before the 2020 presidential election, researcher Steven Kopits has
detailed.
Every year, the U.S. admits more
than 1.5 million illegal and legal immigrants, with more than 70 percent
arriving through the process known as “chain migration,” where newly
naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the
country. In 2017, the foreign-born population reached a record high of 44.5 million.
By 2023, the Center for Immigration
Studies estimates that the legal and illegal immigrant population of the U.S.
will make up nearly 15 percent of the entire U.S. population.
Why the Hispanic Education Gap?
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/10/why_the_hispanic_education_gap.html
An
article published by the Pew Research Center authored by Jens Manuel Krogstad,
titled "5 Facts about Latinos and Education," states,
"Hispanic dropout rate remains higher than that of Blacks, Whites, and
Asians." This hit home for me, because virtually no one else in
my family has a degree – college or otherwise.
Being
Hispanic, I find it nearly impossible to avoid hearing my own culture being
talked about in the media – especially now that DACA, the border wall, and
Trump are all being discussed, often in one sentence. The one thing
that is rarely talked about is our education system and how Hispanics keep
falling behind. The relationship between our culture and the
educational system needs restructuring.
Hispanic-Americans
are growing in numbers and in cultures. I use the term
"cultures" because Hispanics come in all races and backgrounds, and
because of this, they also have their own varying sets of traditions and
values. Latinos desire an education, but their actions do not
correlate with their aspirations. They want an education but do not
do what is necessary to obtain it. Hispanics are the
majority-minority group in America, yet they have the lowest level of
educational attainment of any major demographic slice of the
U.S. Latinos who do not come from an independent educational
tradition are the ones who get hurt.
There
is a disconnect between our society and our cultural beliefs. Most
Hispanics of my acquaintance understand the importance of getting an education,
but only in so far as it leads to immediate earnings to help take care of the
family. Often these two goals are in conflict, and families will
choose jobs over education. For many Hispanics, including me, a
drive for educational achievement was never something our families cared to
instill. My mother expressed the importance of learning another
language and going to school but always enforced getting a job and helping
support the family as the first priority.
As
the Pew article touched on, Latinos dream of going to college and often do, but
their culture does not push them toward it. Hispanics are told
things like: "That's not for you" or "You have to find a spouse
and have kids and raise them." Rarely are we told things like "Go
after your education." The few that do break from the cycle and
go to college run into a plethora of problems, ranging from the micro-fiduciary
issues to the macro-family issues.
Growing
up, I was always in competition with my cousin Joe, from elementary to high
school. We lived in the same household, and would compare
grades. I always felt inferior. Joe was always making the
grades I could not and reading books beyond his grade level. He
would often go above and beyond with his assignments to ensure an A in every
class. Joe had a thirst for knowledge, and anyone who spoke to him
instantly knew he was going to make something of himself. While he
was a shoe-in for a prestigious college, I would be lucky to get accepted
anywhere.
It
came as a big shock to my family and me when Joe dropped out of high
school. He dropped out because he was bored with the education he
was receiving and it felt like a waste of his time, getting something that
would not mean anything. He later decided to obtain his GED so he
could gain entry into a college for a real education.
Our
high school education system is not challenging our bright minds, but is
instead leading them into a vicious cycle of mediocrity. Over the
years, I found college banal and easy, not because I studied and changed my
ways, but because I took easy courses and easy professors who would help me
obtain that "piece of paper." As I moved up from freshman
to junior year, I noticed a steady decline in grades once I found myself in
more rigorous courses. I fell more and more behind when compared to
my peers. Subsequently, at the community college, my cousin was
bored with the same mediocre teaching methods that caused him to drop out of
high school. Therefore, it came as no surprise when he again dropped
out of school.
obtained
financial aid and scholarships to help pay for college and later grad
school. I graduated with my B.A. with almost no
debt. Money was not the issue for me, and if one's willing to jump
through hoops, college can be paid for. The difficulties after
getting into college were in finding peers I could look up to; coming across
ways not to feel inferior to my classmates; discovering where I belonged in a
sea of students who did not share my culture or customs; and finding ways to
separate myself from my family, who constantly needed me.
Our
paths at one point seemed so intertwined that it is hard to understand what
went wrong. I ultimately graduated, went on to graduate school, and
am now a university professor. Joe, on the other hand, continues to
progress through life without nurturing his natural intellectual
affinity. How did a smart kid, who was bound for success, fail at
something that was second nature to him? Experts keep claiming that
it is a money issue, but in fact, that is the smallest issue. The
big problem had to do with his education and culture.
Growing
up Hispanic, we are told things as children that stay with us through
adulthood. We are told family is everything. You
never turn your back on them and stay nearby because they will always be there
for you. Our parents tell us to want more but do not offer support
when we go after our educational dreams. Frequently, discouraging
remarks are made: "Why are you wasting your time with that, get a
job" or "You could be making money and starting a family." We
do not get a support network. I was able to see this subtle
influence only once I moved away to start grad school in Indiana, at Purdue
University.
I
was not a talented student, or even very smart. My family never
supported my choices or my dream of getting a degree. Sure, they
would say things like "go after it," but the moment it became an
inconvenience, they told me to stop. If it were not for a professor
who saw potential and took an interest in me, I might have been in Joe's shoes
now. My mentor pushed me and challenged me to be
better. Once I left my family, I began to see what was keeping me
down: it was my own beliefs and family. These traits are passed down
from one generation to another in a never-ending cycle. In order to
break that cycle and succeed, I turned my back on my culture and my family.
Joe
stayed close to the family around the same location where he grew
up. He got married, bought a house with his wife, and found jobs
that paid. Those jobs are not writing jobs, but they pay frequently
and often. He became a waiter and later a bartender. He
is able to pay his bills and go on trips. He did everything our
culture wanted him to do. All he had to do was give up on
his dreams of becoming a sports journalist. I, on the other hand,
was not ready to let mine go.
It
was years later that Joe told me he dropped out of college. He got
tired of students leaving after four years of college and knowing as much as
they did when they entered the classroom in year one. He got tired
of professors demanding the very minimum on assignments and giving him a B,
which for many colleges has become the new average. He continued,
"Why would I waste my time working hard to get the same grades as someone
who spends most of his time smoking, getting drunk, and not
studying? I thought college would be harder, but instead it is
exactly like high school." He wanted to be proud of himself and
to be around people who valued an education.
Joe
would not settle for anything less than a real education. It is
because of this that I get so upset that in a diverse class of 22 students,
with eight Hispanics on average, I will have five failing my
class. Too many Hispanics are failing college, and it is not because
they are stupid; it is cultural. My Latino students often give me
legitimate explanations as to why they cannot complete the course, but the
constant excuse is for family reasons. Joe would have been one of
the few Hispanics who would be passing a rigorous college-level course. Joe
was so skilled in a system that shortchanged him in high school and again in
college that he was not able to achieve more. He might have been a
great journalist, but who knows now?
Hispanic-Americans
need to start claiming our educational voices and talking about our educational
system. The problem is not money; it is our attitude toward our
education. Our system needs to know that we are not doing well, but
are indeed languishing behind. Our friends, family, and culture
should adapt, and parents need to be involved in their children's educational
outcomes. If Hispanics are in trouble, so are we all.
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