Latino Education

In response to “Latinos Lagging on Every School Level, Study Finds” (Part A, Jan. 25):

Interesting statistics missing from Jean Merl’s article are those concerning Latino immigration trends and the character of recent Latino immigrants.

Strategy Research Corp. has revealed that the enormous growth rate of the U.S. Latino population has been fueled by recent immigration more than by other factors such as high birth rates. Because the vast majority of immigrants in the last few years have come to this country to escape an existence deprived of job and educational opportunities, they come in with great desire to work, but with low levels of income or education.

You can hardly expect their numbers to impact favorably, though impact they will, on high school and college completion rates of the entire U.S. Latino population.

If we could get readings on Latinos born in this country, say, since 1965, my guess is that we’d see a pleasing improvement in completion rates compared to previous generations born here.

By the way, according to SRC, about 80% of all U.S. Latinos 18 years or older were born outside the United States. That figure is higher than it was a few years ago due to recent immigration.

While there is much to be done to improve the education levels of all Americans, emphasizing one group as lagging without explaining why, or without providing a glimpse of the progress achieved, is to accent the negative, which I’m sure was not the intent.

MARIO LAZO JR., Santa Ana Heights