About 200 state legislators, officials, activists and educators gathered Saturday at the University of Maryland, College Park to address educational disparities among Latinos in Maryland during the first Maryland Latina⁄o Education Policy Summit.
Panelists faced staggering statistics, including high dropout rates among Latinos and low enrollment in higher education and head start programs.
Event sponsors included the Maryland State Teacher’s Association and the Governor’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
On Friday, a University Senate Committee approved the addition of a Latino Studies minor at the university, ending a 10-year campaign to establish the program and making the university the only in the mid-Atlantic region to offer it.
Manuel Ruiz, a junior and member of the Latino Student Union who helped lead the push for the minor, said there is still a lot of work needed in increasing access to higher education for area Latinos.
‘‘We’re surrounded by these immigrant communities, yet Latinos are 5.5 percent [of the student population] at the University of Maryland,” he said. ‘‘The minor passing was a victory for us, but it was a minor step.”
A number of officials spoke during the summit, including Doug Duncan, UMD vice president of administrative affairs.
‘‘We need to make sure we reach out to the entire community across the state, but particularly those who need that extra assistance,” he said.
The summit’s planning committee will work in the coming months to draft a proposal, dubbed the ‘‘Brown Paper Document” which will outline suggestions and recommendations garnered from the sessions. They will submit the document to federal, state and local officials, said summit spokeswoman Lillian Cruz.
Summit co-chair Gilberto de Jesus said the ‘‘brown paper document” will include educational models from California, New York and Texas that advocates want to bring to Maryland.
During the summit, U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-Dist.8) of Kensington cited national statistics in outlining disparities among Latinos.
Latinos are less likely to be enrolled in the early head start and head start programs, 53 percent of Latinos graduate from high school with regular diploma and Latinos are less likely than white and black students to enroll in college, he said.
‘‘For the last 15 years, we watched as our children have unfortunately had the dubious distinction of having the highest dropout rate in Maryland,” de Jesus said.
According to the U.S. Census, Latinos comprised 6 percent of Maryland’s population in 2006.
Thomas Perez, Maryland’s secretary of labor, said Maryland has to create a climate that is welcoming to immigrants as it tries to address educational disparities. He said 400,000 immigrants work in Maryland, and that immigrants living in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties pay 8 percent of state taxes.
Perez also said Maryland has a worker shortage which could be filled by immigrants leaving nearby jurisdictions, like Prince William County, where immigrants are being ‘‘driven away by the climate they’re creating” through anti-illegal immigration legislation.
Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk (D-Dist. 21) of College Park led a discussion about parental involvement in education. Low enrollment of Latinos in head start programs leads to educational disparities throughout children’s lives, she said.
‘‘That’s where it starts, and a child can’t really control that,” she said.
Northwestern High School parent liaison Pat Benavides said 45 percent of the school’s population is Latino and that many parents are interested in their children’s education but are stymied by the language barrier.
‘‘They’re intimidated by coming into the schools,” she said.
Silvia Hoke, Prince George’s County international school counselor, said about 23,000 students in the county are Latino, and 12,000 students are enrolled in ESOL classes.
E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.
