School Officials Give Latino Parents Cold Shoulder

By Sharon Noguchi, San Jose Mercury News

In seeking better lives for their children, Latino parents in Morgan Hill (CA) have felt vilified, ignored and blamed by the very people they had hoped to work with to improve education: their public schools.

Since fall, parents impatient with too few improvements coming too slowly have tried to implore the Morgan Hill Unified School District to expand opportunities for their children. The parents are fueled by a harsh reality: Latino achievement measured on state standardized tests is 142 points below white students. Barely two-thirds of the district’s Latino students graduate from high school, compared with 91 percent of its white students. And only 42 percent of Latinos test as proficient in math and English.

“Enough is enough,” said Roberto Aguirrez, who has worked on various school committees. “We are second-class citizens.”

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