Rio Hondo : More Emphasis Urged on Getting Latinos Into College

The president of Rio Hondo College said the nation’s educational bureaucracy must place more emphasis on encouraging Latino children at elementary-school age to go to college.

“We recruit a few minority students and push them through the system in the misguided belief that we have met our obligation,” said Alex Sanchez of Rio Hondo College near Whittier, where at least 60% of the 18,000 students are Latino.

Sanchez made his remarks Tuesday in testimony before a panel of experts at the Los Angeles County Office of Education in Downey. The gathering, opened by Education Secretary Lauro F. Cavazos, was the last of five public hearings across the nation on Latino education.

Although the number of Latino graduates from the University of California system has doubled in recent years, the Latino population has quadrupled, Sanchez said. “The doors to the classrooms are also the doors to the good jobs, and the doors to the wealth and prosperity this country offers,” he said. “To not actively reach out to the Hispanic community is to deny them access to the American dream.”

Community colleges are vital as “the point of entrance for Hispanic students into higher education and better jobs.” He also advocated more Latino representation in agencies that administer grants, pointing out that “who gets the money is directly related to who is reading the proposal.”