Latino Education Panel Expects to Take Its Case Into the Home

To improve academic success for minority schoolchildren, the best place to start may be in the home, the chairman of a newly formed Orange County Latino education committee said Tuesday.

“Probably the biggest and most important thing we’re going to be doing is creating awareness of some of the problems facing Latino students,” said Russell Barrios, a member of state School Supt. Bill Honig’s Council on Hispanic Affairs and a board member of the Orange Unified School District.

Barrios, who chaired the first meeting of Orange County’s Local Hispanic Advisory Committee, said that increasing parent involvement may be one of the keys.

“It is the key,” agreed Rosemarie Fontana, a committee member and principal at Santa Ana’s Adams Elementary School. “Winning their (parents’) trust is vital because we’re dealing with a population that is intimidated by schools.”

Seeking Public Support

As Orange County’s representative to Honig’s state council, Barrios said his task is to establish a local Latino advisory committee to determine how some of the county’s 29 school districts could stimulate more public support.

The group, to be composed of 25 representatives from business, education and the community, will meet monthly and discuss solutions to problems facing Orange County’s Latino schoolchildren.

One of 25 regional groups, the local committee is part of a statewide network being created by Honig, said Mario Muniz, state Department of Education director of external affairs, who attended Tuesday’s meeting.

“The purpose is to establish a direct link of communication to each community as it applies to educational reform,” Muniz said.

The local group, Barrios added, can help spread ideas from the community “right to Honig’s office.”

Hope to Host Meeting

Barrios said that the committee hopes to host one of Honig’s town hall meetings in Orange County when the superintendent visits Southern California.

The concept behind the committee approach is to gain greater awareness of the problems affecting minority students, many of whom traditionally are underachievers, Muniz said. Of the state’s schoolchildren enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, 4.5 million, or about 48%, are minority, he explained.

State projections indicate these children will soon be in the majority, Muniz added. While state figures show that the dropout rate for all students is 31%, it is much higher for Latinos at about 45%, Muniz said.

“If we don’t turn this around, we all lose, (including) minority and non-minority students,” Muniz added. “It’s incumbent on our school systems to prepare minority and non-minority youth for the future work force. . . . There are strong economic implications if we don’t.”

Honig formed ethnic advisory committees for Latinos, blacks and Asian-Pacific Islanders nearly 18 months ago. Members meet with him and other Department of Education officials in Sacramento on a quarterly basis, Muniz said.

Promoting Education Careers

One of the goals of these councils is to turn some students towards careers as educators, filling a crucial void. By 1991, a shortage of new teachers in California is expected to reach 110,000 because of teacher retirements and increasing numbers of students, Muniz said.

A spokesman for Santa Ana’s school district, which has a substantial minority student population, said that although he has recruited bilingual teachers from as far away as Michigan and Florida, recruiting locally is more beneficial.

“Ninety-nine per cent of student teachers prefer teaching in the area where they attended college,” said Richard Flores, Santa Ana Unified’s director of personnel.

As a result, Flores said, teacher shortages can best be prevented by recruiting locally, encouraging student teachers to continue working in the district where they were student teachers, and increasing teacher salaries.

“It’s very important to go out to the high schools and promote” careers in education, he said.