http://www.latinolink.com/news/1999/0728drop.htm

Hispanic Dropout Rate Presents Economic Threat

© 1999 EFE

SACRAMENTO, July 28, 1999

The high rate of high school dropouts among Hispanics is a threat to the United States, as the continuing trend will mean a great percentage of its citizens will be poorly educated and ill-prepared to respond to the highly technological economy of the 21st century.

This is the conclusion of a series of articles published by the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

The series indicates that Hispanic youths have a very high school dropout rate and experience difficulty in finishing their studies due to the fact that they are caught between two cultures, that of school and American society on one side, and the family and Hispanic traditions on the other.

School and American society stress individualism, education, the desire to achieve and be successful.

On the other hand, Hispanic culture emphasizes the value of the family, submission and obedience of the children and the tradition that daughters do not need education, but rather a good husband, the report suggests.

The newspaper sent a team of reporters and photographers to Tangacicuaro, a small town in Michoacan, Mexico, to take an intimate look at a family with triplet daughters - Sandra, Maricela and Lucia - who despite the odds have achieved getting accepted to a California state university.

Michoacan is one of the states where many Mexican immigrants to the United States come from who are now residents of California and whose kids currently make up a high percentage of school-age children.

A large number of these immigrants come from rural areas, where they acquired little formal education, and currently work in the United States as agricultural workers.

The report pointed out that U.S. President Bill Clinton, worried about the school dropout rate among Hispanics, which stands at higher than 50 percent, created a special commission to study the problem.

The report's figures are worrisome for Hispanics.

The high school graduation rate of Asians is 87.7 percent, 73.8 percent among Anglos and only 54.3 percent among Hispanics, which is an improvement over years past.

Growth in Hispanic school enrollments for the year 2000 is projected at 40.1 percent of the total, 44 percent in the year 2005 and 51 percent in the year 2020.