Are Latino Parents to Blame?

A child’s family is almost always the best clue to how he or she will do in school. If mom and dad--or just one of them--care enough about what goes on in class to get involved with the process--from helping with homework to PTA bake sales--that student is going to do well.

So Secretary of Education Lauro F. Cavazos isn’t completely off base when he says part of the blame for the appalling dropout rate among Latino students lies with parents who are not as involved with their children’s education as they should be. But Cavazos is oversimplifying a complex social problem and, among all national education leaders, he should know better.

A Mexican American, Cavazos was appointed to the Cabinet by two different presidents to give a Latino perspective on education, Topic A to most Latinos. As one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing immigrant groups, Latinos know upward mobility in this country starts where it did for all the immigrants who preceded them: in American schools.

But the world in which Latino children--in fact, all youngsters--grow up today is far more challenging than what previous generations faced. There is less manual labor today, so more schooling is needed just to qualify for the most basic jobs. In too many families both parents must work merely to make ends meet, leaving less time to help with homework or attend school meetings. There are more distractions for modern kids, from relatively benign things like radio and TV to real dangers like gangs and drugs. Add the language barrier for many Latinos, and you have an inkling of how daunting a task Latino parents face just getting their kids through high school, much less college.

Educators argue, with some evidence to back them up, that getting Latino parents involved in the schools requires special efforts at outreach--inviting them in Spanish and making them feel welcome at the school. But that takes extra time and money when schools are scrambling just to pay for basics like textbooks and computers. So Cavazos’ challenge is not just prodding resistant Latino parents, but reluctant public officials (like his boss, President Bush) to ante up more money for innovative efforts that help the learning process along. If Cavazos could pull that off, Latino students wouldn’t be the only ones to benefit.