Latino students in the majority in California's public schools

By Catholic Online
11/15/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Findings point to growing Hispanic, Latino population

Hispanic and Latino students now make up the majority of students in California's public school system, cracking the 50 percent barrier for the very first time. According to data released by the state Department of Education, almost 50.4 percent of the state's students in the 2009-10 school years identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, up 1.36 percent from the previous year.

Hispanic and Latino students now make up the majority of students in California's public school system, cracking the 50 percent barrier for the very first time.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - in contrast, 27 percent of California's 6.2 million students identified themselves as white, 9 percent as Asian and 7 percent as black. Students calling themselves Filipino, Pacific Islander, Native American or other total almost 7 percent.

Experts say the shift underscores the enormous impact Latinos already have on California's politics, economy and school system. This influence will only grow as Latino parents discover that many of the schools their children attend are underfunded, Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley says. "It turns upside down how we think about California students," he said.

"A lot depends on the extent to which Latino parents come together and organize," Fuller adds. "These are parents who historically have not had much political power. But as they are coming together and feeling their oats, they may organize around education."

It came as no surprise that Latinos make up the new majority in California schools, considering that their numbers have grown substantially in recent decades. In 2009, Latinos made up 37 percent of the state's population, a number that continues to increase.

However -- the electoral sway that California Latino population has not grown by similar amounts. Almost 40 percent of adult Latinos in California remain ineligible to vote, Lisa Garcia Bedolla, an associate professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education says.

The challenge, Bedolla says, is finding ways to get Latino parents involved in schools when they cannot vote for members of their local school board.

"How do we come up with constructive ways to do that, considering the limitations on how these parents can participate? That's the question from here," she said.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Hispanic, Latino, California, schools

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1 - 2 of 2 Comments

mgm.
2 years ago
It might be a stereotype to assume that most of the hispanic and latinos are Catholic and practice their faith .If so It can only be a boon for our country's future a Catholic Church of a hundred million members can counter balance the "these are the end of days'' Christian right-wing that believes that Christ is returning in this generation or their life-times with it's bad effect on the national psyche. A fresh influx of energetic people that believe in Christ and want to get on with life and move America ahead can only be a blessing from Our Lady of Gualalupe.
Francis
2 years ago
So California's Sanctuary Cities engorge themselves on taxpayer’s money, thanks to the return of Sen. Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown. Los Angeles county and San Francisco is drowning in public entitlements being given away as freebies to millions of illegal aliens. Senator Barbara Boxer and ex speaker Nancy Pelosi are hard line liberal progressives, who ideology is you don't have to work for a living as government will pay your way. Senator Harry Reid who squeaked back to the Senate is another member of the Liberal extremist groups, who has sold his soul for large minority votes, promising the Dream Act--a sleight of hand, to pass a De-Facto Amnesty. The Dream Act will not only reward students of criminal aliens, who stole through our borders. But will also function as a sponsored pass for the whole families to arrive after the newly naturalized students use the "Chain Migration Act" to open the gates to their Immediate Relatives—the spouse, minor children, and parents of adult U.S. citizens.

Chain Migration refers to the unceasing and often-snowballing chains of foreign nationals who are allowed to immigrate as the law allows citizens and lawful permanent residents to bring in their extended, non-nuclear family members. This Chain Migration is the primary mechanism that has caused legal immigration in this country to quadruple from about 250,000 per year in the 1950s and 1960s to over one million a year since 1990. As such, it is one of the chief menaces in America's current record-breaking population boom and all the attendant sprawl, congestion, school overcrowding, dwindling energy supplies and other impacts that reduce American's quality of life. This type of immigration is very dangerous to our society as the US population is beginning to see the light, from the costs brought to them in higher taxes from catering to the illegal alien population by Liberal zealots.

The Lame Duck Dream Act would explode our population even more and as the Heritage Foundation has projected, at a cost of 2.6 Trillion dollars and millions more uneducated relatives. This certainly will put our Social Security at risk. Senator Reid, Barbara Boxer Diane Feinstein and the creeping fetid fringe groups of Liberal lawmakers are not concerned with the costs, but the amount of votes extended to them by grateful minority blocs in future election, the lobbyists secretive bribes and a need to exert their influence upon America. It’s beyond comprehension that Harry Reid would try for the passage of this Dream Act, when our schools are overcrowded with the children of illegal aliens, the massive cost to taxpayers and the terrible reality of the 15 million jobless rates in this nation. This will add even more red ink to our US deficit and certainly not riding the favorable wave of the Tea Party, to lower taxes and reduce a over encroaching federal government.

Any new incremental Amnesty--as that is what the Dream Act is, will just keep on attracting the forever poor and desperate across our borders. We must secure our border with an electrified fence, stop the drain on our social services by pregnant women who intentionally birth their children here, to take advantage of instant citizenship for the infant; so all family members can stay. Now is the time to release your anger on all members of Congress, by calling (202)224-3121 beginning this Monday? Learn the reality of illegal immigration at NumbersUSA and which politicians are corrupted at Judicial Watch.

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