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- URL: https://www.smdp.com/latinos-and-choices-in-todays-education/
- Published: 2007-04-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T23:55:26.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Israel Ortega Guest Commentary*

ONE LESSON WE CAN ALL LEARN FROM our public schools is that spending doesn’t guarantee excellence. Our country chalks up about $9,000 per student on public schools each year, yet too many children aren’t receiving a quality education.

First, let’s consider the facts, specifically as they relate to a growing minority: Hispanic Americans.

According to the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options, nearly half of all Hispanics (42 percent) fail to graduate from high school. That’s probably because 44 percent of Hispanic students don’t read “adequately.” Among those who do graduate, only one in five is prepared to go to college. In short, Hispanics — the largest minority group in the United States — are also the most under-educated.

To reverse those failures, it’s time to consider every possible alternative so we can begin providing the best possible education to our children. And a critical reform will be the expansion of school choice.

The underlying premise of school choice is simple: We need to increase accountability by promoting competition and innovation in our public schools. Through a system of vouchers, tax-credits and scholarship, parents should be given the option to choose the best school for their children, whether public, private or charter.

School choice, of course, promotes competition among schools, and consequently all schools will be compelled to ensure they’re providing the best possible education to all students. That’s the only way public schools will be able to compete with public and private schools in the area.

School-choice programs are succeeding across the country. In Milwaukee, a popular school-voucher program is now helping nearly 20,000 children attend a school of their parents’ choice. The program has boosted participating students’ test scores and graduation rates. Similar school-choice programs are proving successful in cities including Cleveland and Washington, D.C. and states including Arizona and Florida.

Lawmakers are now considering whether to bring real school choice to Texas.

Earlier this month, 5,000 parents rallied at the state capitol asking legislators to allow the use of tax dollars to send their students to better schools. Despite popular support among parents, the school-choice plans under consideration at the capitol face an uncertain future, because powerful interest groups would prefer to simply spend more money in the hope that things will somehow magically improve.

Among the most powerful proponents for the status quo are public school teacher labor unions. They oppose any plan that would create competition by giving parents greater power to choose the best school for their children.

But as the stats cited above prove, a lack of money isn’t the problem. The problem is that we continue to invest in a broken public school system that fails so many of our children.

The latest U.S. government figures show that nearly 20 percent of the student population is Hispanic, and the Hispanic American student population is expected to continue its rapid growth. Sadly, though, our country is in peril of sending out an ill-educated workforce with a weak mastery of the English language.

The surest way to change that is by giving every family the power to use its share of public-school funding to choose the best schools for their children. This isn’t a Hispanic-American issue. It’s one that demand the creativity, innovation and collaboration of all Americans.

Expanding school choice is the logical place to start.

ISRAEL ORTEGA is a media relations associate at The Heritage Foundation. The writer can be contacted at www.heritage.org.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 24, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)