Latino education decline a looming Texas disaster

*Sosa outlines a seven piece plan to change education in Texas for the better: teach college expectation in school; be open to technological change; experiment; reward best schools and teachers; call-out failing schools and teachers; don’t drink the “things are getting better” Kool-Aid; introduce creative thinking now. What do you think? VL

By Lionel Sosa, San Antonio Express News

Texas has a big elefante in the room, and we don’t see it. We’re drinking our Big Reds and lattés, not conscious of the fact that the elephant’s weight will soon tear a hole through the floor and land us all in the third basement of a prison too deep to dig ourselves out of.

The facts are clear: Texas public school students are on a continuing decline in all areas tested. Last year, SAT scores dropped 9 points in math, 6 points in reading and 7 points in writing. A perfect SAT sub score is 800, and Texas students averaged 470. Texas scores are consistently below the national average, while the United States has dropped from first to 17th globally in college attainment.

Take those results and put them together with the fact that Latinos who live in poverty are now the fastest growing population segment in Texas. Here’s the eye-opener: the poorer the student is, the lower the likelihood that he or she even thinks of attending college.

Students who believe college is “not in the cards” for them probably won’t go. They won’t study as hard. “Why work for something that’s never going to happen?” they reason. “We’re poor. We’ll never be able to afford college. Besides, family comes first. If I quit school to work to help the family, I’m doing the honorable thing.”

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