Morning NewsTaco
Friday June 8, 2012
Broken and Obsolete (Time): As the American economy sags, the race for the presidency gets tighter–except in one dimension. Hispanic Americans continue to support Barack Obama by an astonishing 61%-to-27% margin. Were Obama to win, it might well be because of his attitudes on one issue: immigration. But it is an issue on which he will be unable to enact any of his preferences, let alone those policies that many Latinos support.
National Graduation Rate Keeps Climbing (Health News Digest): The nation’s 12.1 million Latino schoolchildren encounter significant barriers on the road to educational success: language challenges, poverty, lagging achievement, low rates of high school and college completion, and, more recently, a wave of state laws targeting illegal immigrants that have put additional strain on Hispanic students, families, and communities. The 2012 edition of Diplomas Count—Trailing Behind, Moving Forward: Latino Students in U.S. Schools—takes a closer look at the state of schooling for this population of students, the challenges they face, and the lessons learned from some of the schools, districts, organizations, and communities that work closely with Latino students.
Raising Latino Achievement Seen as ‘Demographic Imperative’ (Education Week): By 2020, one in four children enrolled in America’s K-12 public schools will be Latino. Of those Latino students, more than half will be second-generation Americans, born in the United States to at least one parent who is an immigrant. Another third will be at least third-generation Americans, the children of parents who were also born in this country, according to projections from the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based research organization. The remainder will be immigrants themselves, though they will be part of a diminishing stream of young Latinos moving to the United States from Spanish-speaking countries.
Poll: Most Americans think Arizona immigration law is “about right” (CBS News): As the Supreme Court weighs a decision on Arizona’s controversial immigration law this summer, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows that more than half of Americans see the law as “about right.”
Hispanics: Political parties must pay attention (The Florida Times-Union): There is no agreement among racial categories among Hispanics, as well. Half of Hispanics say they are some other race, while 36 percent say they are white and 3 percent identify as black. Hispanics often are conservative on social issues. They are more likely to believe in the value of hard work than the general population. All in all, political parties ignore Hispanics at their peril.
U.S. Rep. Hastings says Florida’s noncitizen voter purge is a “backdoor poll tax.” (Tampa Bay Times): “If voters, as a practical matter, are required to spend money out of their own pocket — even a relatively small amount — in order to prove their eligibility and therefore vote, then it’s functionally equivalent to the poll tax,” wrote Daniel Tokaji, election law professor at Ohio State University.
Jeb Bush Offers Some Praise to Obama, Again Rejects Romney VP Idea (ABC News): Jeb Bush repeated his promise not to be Mitt Romney’s running mate, saying “under no circumstances” would he be on the ticket in November, even as he paused to give President Obama some praise in the area of education reform.
Bush’s Latino Attorney General: Some Republicans Are ‘Anti-Hispanic’ (Think Progress): Alberto Gonzalez, the first Latino United States Attorney General, said on Thursday that Mitt Romney needs to do more to connect with the Latino community. In an interview with Yahoo News, Gonzalez questioned whether Romney has really made an effort to reach out to Latinos, even as the campaign has tried to woo Latino voters.
Stop-and-Frisk:Justice Department Meets with New York Officials (Fox News Latino): Activists have derided the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk program, claiming that it overwhelmingly targets Latinos, black men and youths. Now, officials from all three levels of New York’s government want the Justice department to investigate the program.
