UCLA Report on Poverty

A UCLA study underscores a point that demands close scrutiny: While blacks are stuck at the same low-income level that they held in 1969, American-born Latinos and Latino immigrants are falling further and further behind non-Latino white workers in income, despite an economic boom in Los Angeles. They note that one way of addressing this growing disparity in income is via education.

Coincidently, California was given an unusual opportunity to address the needs of Latino immigrants for the 1988-1989 academic year (ending June 30); $80 million in Amnesty monies were made available for courses which teach English and citizenship to mostly Latino immigrants. About 30% of these monies ($23.6 million) were allocated to the community colleges of California.

The $80 million in Amnesty monies have been controlled by state School Supt. Bill Honig (the state Department of Education).

The Los Angeles Community College District alone had been allocated about $3.5 million of the Amnesty monies and has thus far received only $800,000. It should not be surprising then to find that while the Los Angeles Unified School District has been serving 121,000 Amnesty students, the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) has been able to serve only 10,000 students (with 5,000 on a waiting list)--the LACCD should have been serving about 35,000 to 40,000 Amnesty students.

Presently, about 90% of the students completing the Amnesty program in the LACCD move right into the regular community college sequence of courses. It is conservatively estimated that there are about 500,000 Latino immigrants not being served by the Amnesty program.

What can be done? We must all urge our representatives in the Assembly and the Senate to place all future Amnesty monies allocated to California’s community colleges in the office of the chancellor of the California Community College system--David Mertes. However negative any elected official might feel towards Mertes or Honig, the targeted Amnesty population should not be shortchanged. All of Los Angeles benefits from the Amnesty program.

DAVID LOPEZ-LEE

trustee, LACCD