Tell Congress Not to Leave Latino Children Behind!

Last week, a group of senators introduced a series of five bills to reform our public schools.  Sadly, one of these bills in particular could end up turning back the clock on progress that teachers and students have made, while letting states off the hook for neglecting the needs of poor minority children.

We’ve seen all of this before, policymakers and some school leaders are constantly coming up with excuses as to why they continue to fail Latino and English language learner (ELL) students.  They say it’s too hard to get poor minority students to meet basic benchmarks in reading and math, and they say they want to set their own rules for student performance.

Unfortunately, we know what happens when states are left to their own devices.  They lower their standards dramatically and they hide the underperformance of children of color, including Latino and ELL students.  Prior to implementing stricter federal guidelines, states had no incentive to fix failing schools and many, quite frankly, didn’t care to do so.  Once states were required to show exactly how students were actually doing in school, it shed light on the fact that poor Latino and Black children were at the very bottom of the education pyramid.  The data clearly showed that Latino children were falling behind and dropping out at alarming rates. 

Click below to send a letter to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee leadership asking them to take serious steps in reforming our public schools for Hispanic and ELL children; urge them not to support education proposals that threaten to turn back the clock!  Don’t miss your chance to tell them not to let states off the hook and not to leave Latino children behind!