Education
LULAC believes that universal and quality public education is the foundation for lifelong success, and strongly opposes any measure that denies education as a fundamental right, including that of immigrant children. School curricula and textbooks should reflect culturally based teaching methods grounded in research. LULAC supports legislation and policy decisions targeted at decreasing the Hispanic dropout rate and closing of the achievement gap. LULAC urges Congress to increase funding to implement targeted programs to encourage Hispanic students to remain in school.
Federal funding for LULAC National Education Service Centers (LNESC) should be continued so as to address the specific needs of our community, as well as to expand into geographic areas not currently served. Federal funding for Head Start, Migrants and Seasonal Head Start, Gear Up, TRIO, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), HEP-CAMP, Title I and Title III programs should be increased and access should be expanded to ensure high participation of Latino children. LULAC supports increased funding for Title I, Title III and Title VII programs to address adult basic educational programs and bilingual education. LULAC also supports an effective and appropriate bilingual education program for all English language learners.
LULAC strongly opposes vouchers and any other funding method that will limit public education resources. All Latinos should have access to safe, quality and desegregated public education. Public schools should be improved and rehabilitated, and be provided with adequate funding to do so. LULAC supports full-funding of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and urges Congress to reauthorize ESEA with community input. LULAC supports an increase in funding for Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) of higher education. LULAC supports an increase in the number of Latino educators at all levels of education, administrators and school board members, as well as teacher training and development programs to encourage Latinos to become teachers.
LULAC will fight against harsh discipline practices and zero tolerance policies that remove students from the classroom and keep them from learning.
LULAC membership advocates that scholarship awards be provided to qualified persons regardless of their citizenship status.
Making Every Diploma Count: Using Extended-Year Graduation Rates to Measure Student Success. August 2011
The American Youth Policy Forum, Gateway to College National Network, and the National Youth Employment Coalition
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Apr 1, 2011
LULAC, and partner organizations, urge Senator Reid to protect our most vulnerable students from unethical career education programs and which have bilked taxpayers out of millions of precious dollars in Pell Grants and Stafford Loans.
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Mar 28, 2011
In it, they propose a reduction of $5 billion from the Department of Education’s $64 billion budget in 2010...
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We write to strongly oppose H.R. 1, which funds the federal government through the remainder of FY 2011. The bill would result in massive cuts to programs that serve the neediest, most vulnerable members of our society...
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The Obama Administration, as it moves forward in its effort to reauthorize the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (formerly known as the No Child Left Behind Act), has developed a
Blueprint for Education Reform. The Blueprint outlines the administrations priorities in this legislation, LULAC and many other education reform advocacy organizations have submitted their priorities and recommendations to the House Education and Labor subcommittee in response to the blueprint. LULAC applauds the administration’s desire to keep in place a strong focus on holding schools accountable for student’s academic success while expanding to include district’s and states in an accountability system; LULAC is concerned that the blueprint does not address critical issues such as quality of charter school programming for English Language Learner students and the importance of parent and family engagement. LULAC’s recommendations cover the areas of academic assessments and accommodations, accountability, graduation rates, middle school interventions, family engagement, teaching of, and support for teachers, of English Language Learners and charter schools. In addition, LULAC as through the
Hispanic Education Coalition (as an HEC co-chair), the
Campaign for High School Equity (as a founding partner). For questions or comments please contact Iris Chavez at 202-833-6130 x13 or ichavez@lulac.org
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The Hispanic Education Coalition (HEC) unites 25 organizations dedicated to improving educational opportunities for the nearly 50 million Latinos living in the United States and Puerto Rico. Co-chaired by the National Council of La Raza and the League of United Latin American Citizens, the HEC focuses upon federal legislative issues relating to education including the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the Head Start Act, the Higher Education Act, adequate federal funding for education, and the educational concerns of English Language Learners. In each of these areas, the HEC strives to ensure that dialogue at the federal level regarding education issues reflects the education priorities of the Latino community.
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The Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), a diverse coalition of national organizations
representing communities of color,is pleased to submit comments onthe recently released notice
of proposed priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria for the Race to the Top
Fund under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act(ARRA).
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Publications
LULAC Releases the Education Advocacy Toolkit. A guide that will equip you with the tools necessary to advocate for education reform at the local, state or federal level.
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Latino students are the fastest‐growing segment of the public school population and make up nearly one in five public school students. The achievement gap between Latino students and their peers remains wide, and the gap is even more pronounced for English language learners (ELLs). This gap, which is evidenced even before children enter kindergarten, has led to an
alarmingly high dropout rate and low levels of enrollment in higher education programs...
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Welcome to the Back to School edition of the LULAC Education Newsletter!
In celebration of the start of the 2011 school year for students across the country, LULAC would like to use the September edition of the LULAC Education Newsletter to showcase education programs from across the country that are having a positive impact for Latino students. This month’s edition will spotlight two programs making outstanding strides in the areas of Parent & Community Engagement and Expanded Learning Opportunities. We hope that the stories of these successful programs will inspire you to think about ways that your school and/or community can make an impact in the lives of a student this school year.
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A brief newsletter dedicated to bringing you news and information specific to LULAC’s work on educational advocacy!
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LULAC, The American Youth Policy Forum, Gateway to College National Network, and the National Youth Employment Coalition with support from numerous national youth-serving organizations (complete list below) have produced an issue brief to encourage states’ use of extended-year graduation rates in adequate yearly progress calculations and incorporation of these rates into their state accountability frameworks/systems. This brief, Making Every Diploma Count: Using Extended-Year Graduation Rates to
Measure Student Success, aims to educate and inform states of the flexibilities that currently exist to use extended-year graduation rates as a policy mechanism to encourage schools and districts to continue to work with overage, under-credit students.
These rates provide for the inclusion of overage, under-credit students who take longer than the traditional four years to earn a high school diploma, but who successfully earn their credential in five or six years. Extended-year graduation rates allow states to document increases in graduation rates
compared to the traditional four-year measure and highlight the successful work of schools and districts to get struggling and out-of-school students back on-track to graduation. The brief encourages states to calculate five- and six-year high school graduation rates to ensure that schools’ and districts’ efforts to serve struggling and off-track students are recognized and not discouraged.
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