Latino Student Drop Out Rate "Alarming"
By LAUREN MANARY
Updated 3:00 PM PST, Thu, Apr 16, 2009
While the Latino population is expected to grow to be the biggest in the nation, many young Latino males are not graduating from high school. This will present a staggering disparity in the future, some North County leaders said.
Encuentros Leadership and MiraCosta College presented “Identifying the Future” on Wednesday, the first in a series of events to encourage Latino boys to pursue an education.
“The education pipeline is leaking Latino males,” said Mark Evilsizer, a member of the Palomar College board of trustee and secretary of the Encuentros Leadership Program. “There are an excessive amount dropping out—starting at middle school all the way through college,” the North County Times reported.
Television news anchor Artie Ojeda served as the master of ceremonies for the event. He said that a whopping 50% of Latino boys don’t graduate from high school and that by the year 2014 the majority of high school seniors will be Latino males.
“That’s alarming,” he said, according to the paper.
Encuentros also presented statistics from the San Diego Association of Governments. According to them, the Latino population in Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista, Encinitas, San Marcos and Escondido will swell to 334,536 by 2030. The non-Latino population is expected to level off, or perhaps, even decline.
Their efforts did not fall on deaf ears. Ayrton Lopez, an eighth-grader at Calavera Hills Middle School and Padres Scholar winner told the audience he had some big dreams.
“When I am older, I want to be an architectural draftsman,” said Lopez. “And make lots of money.”
For more on this story, visit the North County Times.
First Published: Apr 16, 2009 10:43 AM PST
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