Univision drive targets Latino education

Saturday, March 13, 2010 by Mercedes Olivera (Dallas Morning News)

Jorge Ramos is convinced that the first Hispanic president of the U.S. has already been born.
"But first, we have to get him into college," the well-known Univision news anchor said recently.
Ay, and therein lies the rub.
The latest data on Hispanic education achievement is dismal: Latinos have one of the highest high school dropout rates in the country, and barely one in 10 has a college degree.
"It's incredible that in the most powerful country in the world, this segment of the population is not finishing high school," Ramos said. And with the current economy stalled, "there's a real fear that the real dropout rate will increase among Latinos."
The impact of an undereducated workforce could be felt for years to come, economists and demographers tell us, as tax revenues decline and an aging population grows – especially in Texas, which is expected to have a Latino-majority population within a decade.
It will take a concerted effort on many fronts to keep Latino kids in school. Can mass media help?
Ramos believes they can. He's the spokesman for a new three-year education campaign by Univision to connect Latino parents with resources to help them keep their kids in school and prepare for college.
Univision Communications Inc. began promoting its new education initiative, Es el momento (It is the moment), last month on all three of its national Spanish-language networks. It plans on delivering messages on all its media platforms, including radio, online and mobile.
For this effort, it has no shortage of support from heavy-hitters in the public and private sectors, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solís and Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Locally, the network is partnering with schools to offer informational workshops aimed at getting parents to help their kids succeed in school. The network will hold an after-school resource fair March 30 at Thomas Haley Elementary in Irving and April 8 at Leila Cowart Elementary in Dallas.
Education has been the most important issue for Latinos for a while now, and it will continue to grow in importance as their numbers become too big to ignore and the economy requires more skills.
Ramos noted that 80 percent of the new jobs available will require a college degree. But many Latino families believe that college is unaffordable. In many cases, it is.
That's why an increasing number of select universities are now restructuring their financial aid policies.
Harvard, for example, reduced tuition for families with incomes below $120,000 in 2007. These families' contribution declines steadily from 10 percent of the family's income to zero for those making $60,000 and below.
But it won't make any difference unless a student's mind and expectations can be re-programmed into thinking that anything is possible.
And Ramos believes it can be done.
"It is possible to break the cycle, just like Obama did."