Our Shared Challenge: Latinos' educational progress affects all Texans
June 8, 2008
The real issue is how schools in Dallas and across Texas educate so many Hispanic children, whether they are first-, second- or third-generation Latinos. This responsibility starts with Latino families ensuring that their children show up at school, master their classes and ultimately succeed.
Written by Editorial, Dallas Morning News
We don't doubt that this week's reading of The Dallas Morning News will cause some North Texans to throw down their newspapers in anger. The front-page stories that start today about the struggle Latino children have in progressing through the Dallas school district will lead many readers straight back to the immigration debate. If we would only deport those kids, goes one side of this argument, our schools wouldn't have so many problems. But deporting hundreds of thousands of kids isn't going to happen. Besides, these children's legal status isn't the issue. The Supreme Court has ruled that states must educate all kids, even children of illegal workers. The real issue is how schools in Dallas and across Texas educate so many Hispanic children, whether they are first-, second- or third-generation Latinos. This responsibility starts with Latino families ensuring that their children show up at school, master their classes and ultimately succeed. But this complicated task is important to all Texans because the state's future is wrapped up with its fast-growing Latino population. Before he left to head the U.S. Census Bureau, University of Texas at San Antonio demographer Steve Murdock warned that the Texas economy will be at risk if Hispanics don't graduate in healthy numbers from high school and college. Here's why: Latinos will dominate Texas' workforce by 2040. If they lack the skills the global economy demands, the state can forget growing and attracting good-paying jobs. Instead, Texans will count on more demand for Medicaid, prison beds and welfare. Texas will see its middle class shrink. In other words, all of Texas falls behind if one part of its population fails to advance. That is why focusing on schools with large Latino populations is in every Texan's interest. And why Latino families must take the lead in learning English, assimilating into cities like Dallas and putting a premium upon education. For these reasons, we suggest each of us take the time to read and think about this series. We can throw down the newspaper. Or we can realize how Texas' future rests in all of us meeting this challenge.
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