CALIFORNIA IS HOME TO WAR PROFITEER AND AGENT FOR RED CHINA DIANNE FEINSTEIN, PELOSI AND SOCIOPATH LAWYER KAMALA HARRIS!
California also lags behind other states in education, ranking 38th out of 50 in a recent study. Overall, according to a U.S. News report in 2018, California ranks worst in the nation for quality of life, thanks to the high cost of living.
“California’s
public education system, once the envy of the world, now ranks 49th in the
nation.”
ROBERT
J. CRISTANO, Ph.D
Fitzgerald Video: BLM Takes Over California Schools
Pledge to BLM or fail!
Editor's note: Below is Sean Fitzgerald's new video, BLM Takes Over California Schools, which reveals the Gestapo atmosphere our children now face: Pledge to BLM or fail! The video was created in conjunction with the Freedom Center's Stop K-12 Indoctrination campaign. To read our pamphlet on this issue, "Leftist Indoctrination in Our K-12 Public Schools," click here or order your own copy here.
Don't miss it!
MEXIFORNIA
– THE SHATTERING OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
"Victor
Davis Hanson brings a lifetime of experience in California's Central Valley to
this indictment of multiculturalism and mass immigration." -- Mark
Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies
"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic
group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated,
undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second
underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."
Gavin Newsom: ‘We’ve Accomplished So Much in California’
over Past Decade
2 Jan 202014
3:09
California Governor Gavin Newsom
congratulated his state in a tweet on New Year’s Day that claimed: “We’ve
accomplished so much in CA by standing up for our values and taking on some of
the biggest issues.”
Happy
New Year! What an incredible decade. We’ve accomplished so much in CA by
standing up for our values and taking on some of the biggest issues -- from
healthcare to gun violence to climate change.
Let’s keep it going.
Here’s to 2020 and the decade ahead!!
2,555 people are talking about this
It is not
clear what accomplishments Newsom was citing, but he claimed credit for “taking
on” the following issues:
- Health care: California is hardly
leading the nation in health care, but became the first to offer free
health care to illegal aliens last year, covering low-income individuals under age 25.
The state legislature also considered expanding free health care to illegal
aliens over 65 years old, paid for entirely by the state’s own taxpayers.
BLOG: 93% OF THE MURDERS IN
MEXICO'S SECOND LARGEST CITY OF LOS ANGELES ARE BY DEM VOTING MEXICANS!
- Gun violence: Despite having gun
control laws that are among the most aggressive in the country, including
an assault weapons ban, California led the nation in “mass slayings” in 2019, the
Associated Press reported.
BLOG: SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN'S
PAYMASTERS PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC HAS NEARLY BURNT DOWN THE STATE AS
FEINSTEIN SUCKS OFF THEIR BRIBES
- Climate change: Despite having the
most ambitious climate change policy of any state, with a cap-and-trade
system for fossil fuels and a goal of “zero emissions” by 2045, the state
has a negligible effect on global surface temperatures. In 2018, massive
wildfires, which were blamed in part on aging power infrastructure and
poor forest management, released enough carbon dioxide to equal one year
of electricity use in the state.
California has experienced strong economic
growth and saw state finances rebound from deficits at the start of the decade.
Under Newsom’s predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown, the state even began saving money in a rainy day fund.
However, the past decade also saw massive growth
in inequality in the state, the most visible sign of which was the rise in
homelessness. The most recent statistics show that the state is “entirely” responsible for the nationwide rise in homelessness (though
that may partly be due to the migration of homeless people from colder, less
generous states).
BLOG: IT
DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY BILLIONS CA SQUANDERS ATTEMPTING TO EDUCATED THE
MEXICANS. THEY LOATHE LITERACY AND SPEAKING ENGLISH
California also lags behind other states in
education, ranking 38th out of 50 in a recent study.
Overall, according to a U.S. News report in 2018, California ranks worst in
the nation for quality of life, thanks to the high cost of living.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He
earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy
from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. 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.
CAN YOU DO THE MATH ON THIS DEMOCRAT
PARTY SANCTUARY STATE?
CALIFORNIA: AMERICA’S MELTDOWN STATE
HIGHEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE LIVING BELOW
THE POVERTY LEVEL
HIGHEST NUMBER OF HOMELESS
HIGHEST NUMBER OF ILLEGALS
HIGHEST NUMBER OF MURDERS COMMITTED
BY MEXICANS
HIGHEST NUMBER OF ILLEGALS VOTING
ILLEGALLY FOR MORE
WORST LOWER EDUCATION IN THE NATION
“California’s public education system, once the envy of the world,
now ranks 49th in the nation.”
ROBERT J. CRISTANO, Ph.D
California became a Democratic stronghold
t because Californians became socialists, but because millions
of socialists moved there. Immigration turned
California blue,
and immigration is ultimately to blame for
California's high poverty level.
CALIFORNIA and the RISE OF THE LA RAZA MEXICAN
FASCIST WELFARE STATE
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/08/they-invading-horde-waving-their.html
"The costs
of illegal immigration are being carefully
hidden by
Democrats."
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.
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.
"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.
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
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.
John Binder is a reporter for
Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Pew
Research: Vast Majority of Illegals, 4-in-9 Legal Immigrants, Not English
Proficient
Associated Press
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.
John Binder is a reporter for
Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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?
http://humanevents.com/2013/08/28/is-california-the-next-detroit/
This article was originally published by watchdog.org
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
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.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on
Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Why the
Hispanic Education Gap?
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/10/why_the_hispanic_education_gap.html
By Donnie Lopez
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.
Least-Educated State:
2,471,189 California Residents 25 and Older Never Completed 9th Grade; Highest
Percentage in Nation
https://www.cnsnews.com/article/national/terence-p-jeffrey/least-educated-state-2471189-californians-25-and-older-never
By Terence
P. Jeffrey | December 20, 2019 | 12:39pm EST
(Getty Images/Baron Wolman)
(CNSNews.com) - California once
again ranked 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
at least graduated from high school, according to new
five-year estimates (2014-2018) released Thursday by the Census Bureau’s
American Community Survey.
California, as CNSNews.com reported
last year, also ranked No. 1 for the percentage who never completed ninth
grade and No. 50 for the percentage who had graduated from high school in
the five-year estimates
(2013-2017) the Census Bureau released in December 2018.
In California, according to the
new five-year estimate, 2,471,189 residents 25 and older had never completed
ninth grade.
That equaled 9.4 percent of the
state’s total 2018 population of residents 25 and older.
Texas ranked second with 8.5
percent (1,506,111) of its 25-and-older population having never completed ninth
grade.
New York ranked third with 6.3
percent (857,177) of its 25-and-oder population having never completed ninth
grade.
New Mexico ranked fourth with 6.2
percent (86,723) of its 25-and-older population having never completed ninth
grade.
Kentucky ranked fifth with 5.8
percent (174,998) of its 25-and-older population having never completed ninth
grade.
The five states with the smallest
percentages of residents 25 and older who never finished ninth grade were
Wyoming (1.9 percent), Montana (2 percent), New Hampshire (2.2 percent),
Vermont (2.3 percent) and Alaska (2.6 percent).
The 2,471,189 people 25 and older
in California who never finished ninth grade exceeded the total populations of
15 states. (See chart below.)
Similarly, only 82.9 percent of
California residents 25 and older had at least graduated from high school. That
ranked California last among the 50 states for this metric.
Texas ranked 49th among the 50
states with 83.2 percent of its residents 25 and older having at least
graduated from high school.
Mississippi ranked 48th with 83.9
percent; Louisiana ranked 47th with 84.8 percent; and New Mexico ranked 46th
85.3 percent.
At the other end of the scale,
Montana ranked No. 1 with 93.2 percent of its residents 25 and older having at
least graduated from high school.
Minnesota ranked No. 1 with 93
percent; New Hampshire ranked No. 3 with 92.9 percent’ Wyoming ranked No. 4
with 92.9 percent; and Alaska ranked No. 5 with 92.7 percent.
Even though California is the
state with the largest percentage of residents 25 and older who never finished
ninth grade and the smallest percentage who graduated from high school,
California law requires children to stay in school 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 specified exceptions,” says California’s
Legislative Analyst’s Office.
“Under state law,” says the
Legislative Analyst’s Office, “a pupil who, without a valid excuse, is absent
from school for three full days in one school year, or is tardy or absent for
more than 30 minutes during the school day on three occasions in one school
year, is considered truant. Once a student is designated a truant, state law
requires schools, districts, counties, and courts to intervene and ensure that
parents and pupils receive certain services to assist them in complying with
attendance laws.
In the American Community Survey,
the Census Bureau asks respondents: “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 offers respondents
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 completed,
ranging from “nursery school” through “12th grade—NO DIPLOMA.”
The American Community Survey
surveys a random sample of more than 3.5 million 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 2014-2018
five-year estimates were released Thursday.
CALIFORNIA:
AMERICA’S MELTDOWN STATE
HIGHEST
NUMBER OF PEOPLE LIVING BELOW THE POVERTY LEVEL
HIGHEST
NUMBER OF HOMELESS
HIGHEST
NUMBER OF ILLEGALS
HIGHEST
NUMBER OF MURDERS COMMITTED BY MEXICANS
HIGHEST
NUMBER OF ILLEGALS VOTING ILLEGALLY FOR MORE
WORST
LOWER EDUCATION IN THE NATION
Editorial: California can’t account for billions of education
dollars
Inexcusable that, six
years after K-12 spending revamp, audit finds needy kids aren’t getting help
they should
Students make their
way to classrooms at Manzanita Elementary School in Oakland on March 4, 2019.
By MERCURY
NEWS & EAST BAY TIMES EDITORIAL BOARDS |
PUBLISHED: December
4, 2019 at 5:10 am | UPDATED: December 5, 2019 at 4:11 am
It’s
been six years since California lawmakers revamped the state funding formula
for local schools.
It
was heralded by then-Gov. Jerry Brown as a way to simplify K-12 education
spending and close the state’s achievement gap by giving more money to
districts that disproportionately serve needy kids.
Since
then, state spending on schools has increased about 50%. But, as state Auditor
Elaine Howle explained in a troubling report last month, there is no way to
track whether money is being spent as it should.
School
officials across California have co-mingled billions of dollars of state money
that was supposed to be used for children who fall into one of three
categories: English learners, low-income or in foster care.
Howle’s
findings confirm what critics have been saying for years: Rather than
specifically helping needy kids, the money has simply been used to boost
general spending.
That
partially explains why California students’ test scores continue lagging the
national average and the state has failed to close the achievement gap that
divides along racial and economic lines.
If
California has any hope of narrowing that divide, legislators and Gov. Gavin
Newsom should require accountability for the $63 billion of state money
currently spent annually on K-12 education.
It’s
time to end this reckless spending. As we enter the state budget cycle for the
2020-21 fiscal year, lawmakers must stop doling out money without a meaningful
tracking system for how it’s spent.
Brown’s
original plan made sense. State spending for schools had become far too
complicated, with more than 110 special “categorical” programs that had
different funding and eligibility requirements.
The
plan was to eliminate the categorical programs and give local school
districts more control over the money. Hence, the Local Control Funding Formula
was created.
LCFF
is pretty simple. School districts receive a base amount determined by
students’ attendance figures and grade levels. In addition, they receive a
supplemental 20% for students falling into one of the three needy categories.
And in districts with concentrations of more than 55% needy students, per-pupil
funding increases 50% for each kid beyond the 55% threshold.
The
so-called supplemental and concentration funding is supposed to be spent to
provide additional help for those targeted children. But when Howle audited a
sample of three school districts — Oakland, Clovis and San Diego — only Clovis
tracked how the money was spent.
That’s
because there are no state regulations to ensure districts separately account
for the extra funds. Moreover, if the districts don’t spend the money on those
needy students the year they receive the funds, they can spend it on anything the
following year.
Hence,
there are no rules to ensure Brown’s law is being followed. Indeed, while he
was in office, Brown repeatedly resisted such a requirement. Consequently,
there is no way to determine whether the additional funding is producing measurable
student performance improvements.
The
idea behind LCFF was to provide more local control. Parents were supposed have
input into how the money is spent — something that’s meaningless if they’re not
provided useful data — and school districts were supposed to be freed from the
restrictions of hundreds of categorical spending programs.
But
LCFF was never intended to be a giveaway of funds without obligations. Our
neediest students were supposed to be better served. There’s no way to know
whether that’s happened.
The
lack of accountability — for how the money is spent and whether it’s producing
results — is no longer acceptable.
"English
Learners"—California Students Win $53 Million in Lawsuit over Poor Reading
Scores
02/22/2020
A+
|
a-
Friday’s Los Angeles Times included a
front-page article titled, “See Dick and Jane read poorly. See them win a
lawsuit” that focused on the dysfunction of state schools that had worsened to
the point that students had to sue the state to get attention. California did
pony up $53 million which may help somewhat, but doesn’t solve the core problem
of excessive immigration taking attention away from American kids.
The official California Department of Education page includes the
rather challenging language statistics for Fall 2018:
● The 1,195,988 English
learners constitute 19.3 percent of the total enrollment in California public
schools.
● A total of 2,587,609
students (English Learners and Fluent English Proficient) speak a language
other than English in their homes. This number represents about 41.8 percent of
the state’s public school enrollment.
● The majority of English
learners (70.2 percent) are enrolled in the elementary grades, kindergarten
through grade six. The rest (29.8 percent) are enrolled in the secondary
grades, seven through twelve, and in the ungraded category.
This is the larger background that
contributes to the failure of California public education, driving students to
sue the state. Citizen students stuck in diverse schools are really getting the
short end of the stick in environments where diversity is more valued than
excellence and achievement.
To give the Times its due, it did
mention some of the diversity details which I’ve highlighted in the text
following:
California students sued because they were such poor
readers. They just won $53 million to help them, Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2020
LOS ANGELES — Two years
ago, a group of students and their teachers sued the state of California for
doing a poor job teaching kids how to read — 53% of California third-graders
did not meet state test standards that year, and scores have increased only
incrementally since. On Thursday they won $53 million so that the state’s
lowest-performing schools have the resources to do better.
Under the settlement with
the state, most of the funding will be awarded over three years to 75 public
elementary schools, including charters, with the poorest third-grade reading
scores in California over the last two years. The agreement comes after the
novel lawsuit contended that the students’ low literacy levels violated
California’s constitutional mandate to provide all children with equal access
to an education, said attorney Mark Rosenbaum at the pro bono law firm Public
Counsel.
“We shouldn’t have to be
filing lawsuits to establish a right to read,” Rosenbaum said.
The plaintiffs included
current or former students and educators at La Salle Avenue Elementary School
in Los Angeles; Van Buren Elementary School in Stockton; and the charter school
Children of Promise Preparatory Academy in Inglewood. La Salle and Van Buren
will be among the schools that receive funding, Rosenbaum said, but not all the
recipient schools have been identified.
“We know that literacy is
the foundation for all learning, and it’s an essential part of participating in
democracy. People who can’t read and write are often uninformed, are more
easily manipulated and less likely to vote,” said Pedro Noguera, a professor of
education at the University of California, Los Angeles. This settlement is
“just a step, and I think we shouldn’t exaggerate how big a step.”
A Los Angeles Times
analysis of the 75 lowest-performing schools on the state’s English language
arts test, based on California’s Common Core standards, illustrates the depth
of the reading problem. Seven out of 10 third-graders in these schools did not
meet the standards, according to state data from 2018 and 2019. The schools have about
double the English learners of other elementary schools, and more than 90% of students at those
schools qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — a poverty indicator.
The schools with the
lowest test scores also tend to enroll higher percentages of homeless students
and foster students, Noguera said.
The settlement money to
improve learning will exclude hundreds of elementary schools whose students are
also struggling to meet reading standards.
In more than 500 of the
state’s approximately 6,000 elementary schools, the majority of third-grade
students scored Level 1 — the lowest — in English tests, according to the Times analysis. About 80% of
the schools’ population are black and Latino, higher than the state average of
60%.
The scenario is also
troubling in the fourth grade, with California students lagging behind the national
averages in reading on the 2019 National Assessment of Education Progress, a
standardized test taken across the country. (Continues)
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