Local News in Brief : Lack of Latinos in Sciences Decried
Education Secretary Lauro F. Cavazos began his first official swing through Southern California on Wednesday with a speech in Los Angeles to the Mexican-American Engineering Society focusing on the low numbers of Latinos entering the fields of science and engineering.
Cavazos, former president of Texas Tech University and the first Latino cabinet member, said only 2% of Latino college students are science and engineering majors. He cited as reasons the paucity of role models and the general failure of schools to encourage Latinos to take advanced high school courses.
Cavazos was chosen to finish the term of William Bennett, who resigned last month to write a book. Cavazos, the son of a Texas ranch hand, affirmed that he strongly favors bilingual education. Unlike his outspoken predecessor who sought to cut back federal support of programs to teach non-English-speaking pupils in their native languages, the new education secretary declared: “I grew up speaking two languages. . . . I think (bilingual education) has a tremendous future in this nation.”
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