How you can make your voice heard to help South Texas Latino high schoolers get the technology they need to learn
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco
This is a blatant call to action to all Texas Taquistas. A group of high school students in the Rio Grande Valley needs your help to get the 21st Century learning tools they need. The overwhelmingly Latino student body of Roma High School have a funding bill before the Texas legislature.
I’ll let 18 year-old Kassandra Garcia explainin her open lettter to the state legislature:
Dear 85th Texas Legislative Session
I am a senior at Roma High School and a member of the South Texas Youth Congress.
When I entered elementary school the iPhone was announced. Six years ago last January the iPad was introduced. I was in middle school at the time. These devices touched off change which continues to transform how we communicate, connect, and learn.
My generation is told that we are “Twenty First Century Learners.” But I don’t feel like one. My high school, like many others, finds it difficult to meet the goals and promise we are required to achieve. It is not their fault. I have wonderful teachers who work to prepare us.
In my mind the twenty first century means having the resources that match up to the expectations we are asked to meet.
I imagine a classroom where we are connected with others to collaborate, to work on a common projects, to explore and innovate. We can not do this with outdated technology, with broadband restrictions. This is a disadvantage which lessens our ability to be robust contributors to progress and the tax base.
We have a proposal, we call iSol, before the 85th Texas Legislative Session. It’s an initiative to connect our schools with fiber optics which will truly make us “Twenty First Century Learners” and workforce ready!
I urge our state representatives to do the right thing and place us on the right side of innovation, opportunity and progress.
Kassandra Garcia
Roma High School Roma, Texas
What can you do?
HERE’S a link to an alphabetical listing of all the Texas state representatives. Cut and paste Kassandra’s letter to an email and voice your support!
The bill, hb 3467 – Relating to a postsecondary distance learning feasibility study conducted by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, is pending in the Higher Education Committee so the timing is perfect to make a difference.
Do you like stories that reflect authentic Latino life in the U.S.?
Be part of a positive change.
[Photo by Berkeley Lab/Flickr]
