Shakira Is Going To Save Latino Students From Dropping Out?

By Dustin Mendus

Education has come to the forefront as a Latino issue in the past few weeks due to disappearing Latino students in Alabama. It’s raised eyebrows. The concerns about the American education system and Latino students are a huge issue that has gone unnoticed for too long. Immigration has been a big issue among the community, and immigration has been used by politicians as their way to get the attention of the Latino voters if they seek them.

While immigration is important, I can’t help but feel that we’ve neglected a domestic issue: our children’s education.

The appallingly slow decline of Latino dropout rates from high school (this does not include kids who go on to earn GEDs, just 16-24 year olds who have not earned a diploma or GED) has been a huge red flag since the 1980s. The National Center for Educational Statistics charts Hispanic dropout rates from the 1980s to 2009.

• In 1980, 35% of Hispanic students dropped out of high school.
• This percentage has gradually grew to 17.6% as of 2009.
• Compared to white, black, and Asian, dropout rates, Hispanics are a massive outlier: 5.2% of white students dropped out in 2009, 9.3% of black students, and 3.4% Asian students.
• Native American rates are another outlier, at 13.2%.

And we’re finally doing something about it. More scholarships? Programs to encourage kids to stay in school? No. A presidential advisory commission.

The White House states that the commission’s purpose is to “expand academic excellence and improving educational opportunities for Hispanics by providing advice to President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.” The swearing-in and meeting will be streaming on the White House website at 1:00 pm EST Thursday, and is made up mostly of professors and university employees from across the country, but generally from heavily Latino populated regions, a few school principles, as well as a very famous face, Shakira. Shakira seems like a strange choice, however, she’s a big philanthropist in education, helping build a school in her hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia, as well as being involved with UNICEF.

However great the star power behind a commission is, and whatever solutions that come out of it, there is one thing to keep in mind: time. Commissions don’t get things done overnight. Tomorrow’s events are not going to be debating and producing the answer to our problems now — that won’t come for days, months, maybe even years.

I’m only 21 and I’m no one to give parenting advice at this age or with this lack of experience, but the battle to provide Latino students with a proper education and a competitive edge that they are sorely lacking starts at home. Class might not teach what your son or daughter is interested in, but I urge you to get involved with your child, or children, and their educational lives. If you’re a teacher, help your students become interested in education. Reignite the fire of curiosity in children before they reach apathy and “make it by” with low grades, or simply drop out. Is your daughter interested in dinosaurs? Does your son love theater? Foster whatever it is. Their interest isn’t all they’ll learn in school, but with something they care about, they’ll have motivation to go to class and do their homework.

We don’t have the time to wait for bureaucratic solutions, unmotivated kids aren’t going to be in school when solutions reach Congress for a vote. Unmotivated kids are going to be adults on welfare struggling to survive when these solutions arrive.

Dustin Mendus is an undergraduate student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He focuses on cultural geography.