Thread: County launches educational partnership with Mexican consula

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/06 ... _20_06.txt

County launches educational partnership with Mexican consulate

By: BRENDA DURAN - Staff Writer

LINDA VISTA ---- In an effort to improve the performance of thousands of Latino students who are learning English countywide, officials and the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego announced a program this week that will seek help from local businesses.

Of the 120,000 English learners countywide, officials said that more than 25,000 attend schools in North County districts targeted for the program: Escondido, Vista, Oceanside and San Marcos.

The goal is to have businesses sign up through the San Diego County Office of Education to act as mentors for the students. County officials said that $500,000 has been allocated in the county's 2006-07 budget for the new program, called BELIEVE (Businesses Encouraging Latinos in Educational Venues).

"We have to invest in our youth for tomorrow," said county Superintendent Rudy Castruita, at a meeting at the county offices Monday. "This (Latino youths) is the fastest-growing population in San Diego County."

The money will be used to train local district personnel to create outreach programs for Latino parents who don't speak English and will also help county officials promote the program to local businesses.

Luis Cabrera, consul general for the Mexican Consulate, said that because the majority of Latino English learners in the county are of Mexican descent, the consulate will help ensure that the business community is aware of the new opportunity.

"The aim is improve English language-learner achievement," said Cabrera. "It (the program) will give the students job and leadership opportunities and provide a better future for our communities."

Robert Watkins, the county school board member representing the 4th District that covers inland North County school districts, said the program is much needed in North County districts where the percentage of English learners has been steadily rising every year.

"We want to be proactive about this," said Watkins. "By using the business community, we will be able to provide the much-needed mentors and role models for these kids before it's too late."

Watkins said the effort was launched after county officials reviewed countywide standardized test scores from English learners at a Latino summit at the county offices last year.

County officials presented data showing that 48 percent of the English learners consist of Latino students who have been continuously falling behind in test scores, have low graduation rates and high dropout rates, said Watkins.

Watkins said the new program is intended to "empower" Latino parents in the community by linking them with businesses that can provide workshops and give Latino students access to role models in the community.

"The strategy is to start from the bottom up," said Watkins.

County officials said the program will be incorporated into the county's long-term Latino Academic Achievement Plan, which is focused on increasing high school graduation rates, parent involvement and leadership training.

Lean King, superintendent of the Encinitas Unified School District that had board members at Monday's meeting, said his district aims to start the program next school year, although the district has only 8.6 percent English learners, one of the lowest percentages in North County.

King said that school officials are expecting that number to increase in coming years and want to ensure they have a program in place to provide a resource for Latino students.

"We are going to be brainstorming about what local businesses we want to partner with," said King. "We have been looking to create this type of support system for quite some time."

Vista Unified Superintendent Joyce Bales, who also attended the county meeting, said she is looking to start the program next year as well.

Bales said the priority for district officials next year is to boost the scores of the 6,598 English learners in her district by providing outside support.

"Education and economic development go hand in hand," said Bales. "I believe a lot of business people will be eager to work with us."

-- Contact staff writer Brenda Duran at (760) 761-4408 or bduran@nctimes.com.

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The goal is to have businesses sign up through the San Diego County Office of Education to act as mentors for the students. County officials said that $500,000 has been allocated in the county's 2006-07 budget for the new program, called BELIEVE (Businesses Encouraging Latinos in Educational Venues).

What happened to the other students in jeapardy? The whites, blacks, asians? This is a racist program, imho. The only people that this school district gives a damn about are hispanics?

Great, another program designed to help ONLY Mexican students (that's what they are, not Latino, not Hispanic, but out and out MEXICAN NATIONALS and ILLEGAL ALIENS from MEXICO). All the while our schools are failing due the mass invasion of illegal aliens and their prolific litters, with local government doing nothing to stop it, they actually go out of their way to encourage more illegal aliens to move here.

In south San Diego County it is widely known that children from Mexico cross the border daily to attend U.S. schools, at U.S. taxpayer expense of course. Go to the border on any school day, and you will see thousands upon thousands of MEXICAN NATIONAL children crossing through the border checkpoint and immediately get on to local school district busses that take them to schools, then return them to the border afterwards in the afternoon. On nornal school days the border crossing wait times are in the hours range, yet mioraculously, when there is a scool holiday, the border wait time is nearly nothing, gee, what a coincidence. Yet not a single public official, school administrator and most certainly not a single news outllet ever does a report on the masses of MEXICAN NATIONAL children who illegally take advantage of our school system to attend schools here.

San Diego County has become a literal Mexican barrio and social service center for MEXICO, filled with illiterate, ignorant, crime prone invaders. Thanks to free pregnancy care, free healthcare, welfare and other public assistance programs, tens of thousands of MEXICAN NATIONALS with visas and MEXICAN ILLEGAL ALIENS have crossed over and ensconsed themsleves into all areas of the County. Living ten to thirty people per home or apartment, they have ruined the quality of life here, and most especially ruined the school system.

The average scenario goes like this, a couple crosses over illegally with kids or has some while they are here. The parents speak no English, so when the kids enter kindergarten or whatever grade they enroll them in, they know not a single word of English, thus they need special tutoring and language programs. In fact, many parents get waivers for their kids to avoid English immersion classes and get them taught in Spanish, putting them even further behind for later years of study. Then lo and behold, we need special community programs and organizations to help these poor "Englsih learner" students. It makes me sick. Everyday, every where you go, you see Mexican families with kids in stores or whatever, with kids of all ages, and more often than not, they don't speak a single word of English.

I guess that's why they call San Diego, Mexico's Finest City.