New Jersey Hispanics Demanding School Choice
by Jim Brown
August 9, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A non-profit Hispanic education group is supporting a school-choice lawsuit filed last month against poorly performing New Jersey school districts.The suit asks the court to allow black and Latino students in 95 failing New Jersey public schools to receive tuition vouchers to attend a different public or private school of their parents' choice. The Washington-based Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (CREO) says the lawsuit will permit Latino parents to select the school that best benefits their children's education.
Isabel Santa, a spokeswoman for Hispanic CREO, says the four urban Latino school districts that are failing have a 44 percent Latino population, and half of those students are not graduating from high school. That is a "huge disparity," she says, when compared to white and black students who live in "wealthier" districts and have access to higher-performing public school.
"And then those who are forced to live in lower-income areas in New Jersey are forced to attend schools that are filled more with violence, with teacher discrimination, [where] there aren't enough books in the classroom -- and it's not fair," says Santa.
According to the CREO spokeswoman, the state of New Jersey is not providing a "thorough and efficient" education for every child, as the state constitution mandates. "[I]f you're in a [New Jersey] school district that's failing, the chances are the rest of the schools are also failing, and so are the neighboring school districts within that county," she explains.
For example, says Santa, many Latino students in the communities of Camden and Vineland are being forced to remain in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program for four years, instead of moving to a regular learning classroom to practice the English they are learning in ESL classes.
"So really, there's a lack of choice going on in New Jersey, even though they're saying we have this inter-district transfer," Santa continues. "But the seats available aren't sufficient enough for the kids who are trying to apply for them."
Santa says the mainstream media greatly underestimates the amount of support in the Latino community for school vouchers.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
