The first few years are critical for preparing kids for life, yet early childcare employees are the least prepared. They often only have a high school degree, thus aren’t equipped to give kids the care and services they need during their formative years. Mississippi Governor, Phil Bryant, told residents at the Neshoba County Fair in July 2017 that he plans to improve early childhood education across the state by training day care workers. He hopes to use federal and state funds to provide training through the state’s 15 community colleges, at no cost to the workers, according to one source. According to Governor Bryant’s Twitter account, “Our community colleges are now educating our childcare workers on early childhood education best practices. Our children deserve the ...
Did you know: In King County, Washington (9.28% Latino population), only 1 in 4 of all Latino high-school graduates go on to earn a college degree? This is in stark contrast to the region’s 1 in 2 Asian and white students who earn a degree. In an effort to help Latinos both enroll in and succeed in college once they get there, Highline College has created the innovative Puente program. As part of this initiative, just 25 students – most are first-generation Latino students who are the first members of their families to attend college – are “banded” together for the course of their studies.
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Education determines a lot about a person’s life. Education factors into their health, where they live, their access to resources, and their ...
Latino parents in Holyoke, MA (49.49% Latino population) have taken drastic measures in an effort to achieve a better standard of education equity for their children, according to The Boston Globe. In August 2017, the group Padres de Latinos de las Escuelas de Springfield y Holyoke (PLESH) filed a lawsuit against the Holyoke Public School District claiming that there was a failing to “provide adequate translation of educational documents” for parents with limited English proficiency. Nearly half of the 5,300 students in Holyoke live in homes where English isn’t the primary language. Per The Boston Globe report, 80% of all students in the district are Latino and the lawsuit focuses heavily on minority children in special education. “Nothing has changed,” said Glorimar ...
“Equity” is a term that means many things to many different people. For many Latinos, equity has been difficult to attain in many different areas. Healthcare, housing, education, and income are just some of the areas in which many Latinos face disparities and/or inequities. However, the City of San Antonio, Texas (63.34% Latino population), has recently made the topic of equity an issue to be tackled by the city government. San Antonio City Manager, Sheryl Sculley, presented the 2018 city budget recently and it will be the first to use an “equity lens,” according to a story by The Rivard Report. With the new equity lens, more city resources will be committed to areas and populations where the need is greater – often low-income and heavily Latino-populated areas that have ...
Latino students sometimes struggle to continue their education, which can hinder their long-term life outlook. In San Antonio, TX (63.34% Latino population), many students have counted on the Upward Bound Program from the U.S. Department of Education to help prepare them for college. However, according to the San Antonio Express-News, funding for the program – which has been in operation for the last 20 years in the city’s primarily Latino-populated South San Independent School District (SSAISD) – has been cut and was in danger of not continuing. According to reports, 64 SSAISD students participate in Upward Bound. “[That] number probably would have increased to about 100 had there been enough funding to continue the program this year and recruit a new freshman class ...
It cannot be emphasized enough: kids need to eat healthy, nutritious meals in order for them to succeed academically. There is an indisputable link between nutrition and the development of children’s brains. Despite this importance, many kids go hungry. Kids from low-income families, including a disproportionate number of Latinos, often go without meals at school because the owe money. School lunch debt is a huge issue in cities across the country. A 2016 survey by the School Nutrition Association of 1,000 school meal program operators, about 75% of districts had unpaid student meal debt at the end of the school year. The median amount of debt per district was $2,000, but it can run much higher in large districts. For example, the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, ...
Two critical parts of every bus trip are the walk there and the walk back. Sadly, many streets are designed for cars, not families, making for some very sorry bus stops. Safe routes and safe bus stops are critical for people to access basic necessities, like schools, work, grocery stores, parks, healthcare, and other cultural and historical community resources. Streetsblog USA is calling attention to sorry bus stops during their 2017 Sorriest Bus Stop in America tournament. The goal is to motivate action from the streets and transit agencies who are responsible for designing and constructing the bus stops. You can enter the competition by submitting a photo of the sorriest bus stop with the exact location (preferably tagged in Google Maps) and a short description of what ...
Latino children may have education disadvantages when starting kindergarten. Head Start, which is free for low-income families, may help to improve school readiness with curriculum to enhance children's language, pre-literacy, and social-emotional skills. In 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services Head Start passed new performance standards increasing the minimum program hours. This is great for kids and families, but a challenge for providers due to limited space. In Alexandrian, Minnesota, half-day classes could share the same facility, one in the morning and a second in the afternoon, but didn't have the space to offer full day programming for both classes. They needed more space. Jim Haugen, Head Start Supervisor approached Alexandria Technical and Community ...
Few factors are as important to a person’s health as their income. Millions of Latinos and other minorities struggle to make ends meet financially because of low-wage jobs. Low wages lead to housing instability, food insecurity, and poor health. In recent years, cities across the country have pursued efforts to raise the minimum wage so that workers will have a better chance of getting ahead, accumulating wealth, and provide better living environments for their families. One such example is found in Kansas City, MO (14.54% Latino population), in which voters overwhelmingly approved raising the minimum wage from $7.70 to $10 an hour. This would precede annual increases up to $15 by 2022. “We are so pleased that Kansas City has demonstrated a progressive political perspective ...
