Yes On Proposition 58 : Restore Educational Opportunity

The termination of the Bilingual Education Department at CSU-Sacarmento

 The long march through the institutions has ended for the Bilingual /Multicultural faculty and students at CSU Sacramento.  On Sat, May 19, the Bilingual/Multicultural Education Department at CSU-Sacramento graduated its final class.  A movement that began in the  Mexican American Education Project of 1969-1974 came to a close.  See history here:

https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/chicano-mexican-american-digital-history-project/mexican-american-education-project

 I retired in 2008 and had little role to play in the decision to abandon this  civil rights project.  In the 15 year history of the department we graduated thousands of new bilingual teachers and educational leaders who, under the prior hegemonic system, would have been sorted out.  These graduates have gone into teaching and schools and influenced thousands of students.   Under the new system, they will again often be discarded. The drop out rate for Chicano students in California  remains near 50%. We know how to reverse this, but politicians and institutions are unwilling to dedicated the resources to this end. 

The students are still there.  The students of California still need bilingual and multicultural teachers.   Students who are descendents of Mexican and Chicano families now make up almost 48% of public school students.

There were budget cuts, but a united faculty could have retained the department if they so chose.  Instead, a new generation of faculty chose to abandon this institutional base that had been created by their predecessors.

For more history see; https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/chicano-mexican-american-digital-history-project/history-of-bilingual-education-dept-at-sac-state

"An injury to one is an injury to all."

This post dedicated to the memory of Hugo Chacon and Dr. Tom Carter. 

Worse off than in the 60's ? Mexican Americans in schools

 Who Gives a Damn?

By   Rodolfo F. Acuña

Teresa Wiltz in America’s Wire writes that despite claims of increased educational opportunities for minorities that the performance of black and Latino teenagers remains the same or lower than 30 years ago.  In fact, the math and reading performance of black and Latino high school seniors equal that of 13-year-old white students – so much for the post racial society.

Educators and liberal politicos point the finger at low expectations, inequality of resources, less qualified teachers, the income inequality, teacher bias, and inexperienced teachers. They throw in the tracking of black and brown students into remedial class while whites are put into university bound classes.

Further, minority students are more likely to be given "A’s" for work that would receive a "C" in a rich school giving the illusion that they are being educated.  Society would not tolerate this record in a football team at any level, or for that matter if we had fewer weapons of mass destruction than 30 years ago. 

However, in my view, the major reason for the lack of progress of Mexican American and other minorities is society’s historical amnesia or more aptly its Alzheimer disorder that erases the memory of previous efforts or commitments to bridge the gap between black, brown and white – rich and poor.  

The truth be told, educators pay less attention today to Mexican Americans than it did 50 years ago. In the sixties educators and reporters at least talked about it.  The late Los Angeles Times’ columnist Ruben Salazar attacked the dropout problem and the failure of the schools to devise a relevant curriculum, as well as the failure to recruit and train effective Mexican American teachers.

Ruben Navarrette is a fool - and misinformed

Ruben Navarrette is a fool.  And, he is published in the Sacramento Bee as an informed essayist on the Latino population.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/30/4015119/latino-numbers-are-up-why-isnt.html#ixzz1cJJKqYNI

Navarrette is a paranoid fool who spends too much time reading  Tea Party/ Republican talking points developed and funded by the Koch brothers. He is primarily  a source  on the fringe party element of the Tea Party.  Read his other writings on Cesar Chavez and the UFW, you will see his very conservative perspective.

  RE: bilingual education establishment. I guess he hasn't read the paper since 1996. Bilingual Education was eliminated in almost all California schools with Prop. 227. - an anti immigrant proposition much like those of Arizona and Alabama.  In Sacramento City Schools, for example, there are 77 schools.  Five of the schools have a bilingual program for less than 20% of the students in the schools. It usually lasts 2-3 years of schooling at best.  Only one school is fully bilingual, The Language Academy.  The Academy is a charter school.  Only parents who want to have their children there are enrolled.  The same campus has an English language school.  The hypocrisy of Navarette and his Tea Party allies is revealed. 

Biliterate Against the Odds,

 Becoming BILITERATE AGAINST THE ODDS : A Cause for Celebration:

                  La comunidad entera de Sacramento está invitada a la 18a Conferencia Anual sobre Educación Multicultural en Sacramento State University, el sábado, 5 de noviembre de 8:30 am – 1:00 de la tarde en la University Union, Sacramento State .  La entrada y el estacionamiento de carros (en Parking Structure II) son totalmente gratis.  

                  La invitada de honor es la Doctora María de la Luz Reyes, autora de of Words Were All We Had: Becoming Biliterate Against the Odds.  En su presentación de las 9:00 am la Dra. Reyes nos explicará por qué  el crecer bilingue en los Estados Unidos debería  de ser una causa de celebración.  El éxito de los profesionistas latinos de educación rechaza el mito de “en riesgo” sobre los que crecen con idiomas nativas, indicando que el saber el Espanol apoya el aprendizaje del  Inglés y refuerza la lucha contra la hegemonía de “English Only.”

                  El Departamento de Educación Bilingue  Multilingue (BMED) de Sacramento State patronina esta conferencia anual para unir la facultad y estudiantes con miembros de la comuniadad de Sacramento para apoyar a la educación bilingue y multilingue en nuestra escuelas publicas K-16.  Invitamos cordialmente a todos los estudiantes, alumna de CSUS, maestros, padres de familia , profesionistas y toda persona interesada a que acuda a esta manana con la Dra. Reyes.  Después de la presentación, habrá grupos mas chicos para discutur temas relacionadas, dirigidos por facultad, maestros y estudiantes.