Junior Colleges Are Vital to U.S. Job Training
The success of today’s and tomorrow’s work force in California depends on education. The future of our nation depends on education.
For California’s growing Latino population, community colleges provide the major door of opportunity. In the city of Santa Ana, California’s eighth-largest city, 65% of the population is Latino. Santa Ana Unified School District’s population is 86% Latino. We are the fastest-growing population in California.
Social and economic equity will be impossible for us to achieve unless educational opportunities are available to all Californians.
Proposals to increase per-unit fees to community college students from $10 to $30 are pricing Latinos and other disenfranchised Californians out of educational opportunities.
When the choice is between feeding the children or paying for a college education, the children will be fed first.
Working together, our national economy will get better, and all ethnic groups have a responsibility to participate in that transformation. Latinos can participate only if we open the doors of opportunity through education.
ZEKE HERNANDEZ
Santa Ana
Zeke Hernandez is a state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
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