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latinos 
Sat Nov 05, 2011 at 15:38:50 PM MST
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( - promoted by Fong)
"Education's role in our society cannot be minimized...It is quite probably the most critical investment a people can make." -- Richard T. Castro
Friends, it is with great urgency that I reach out to you today. Kepner Middle School, the cornerstone of the Westwood community, in the late Rich Castro's district, is under attack. I am asking for your help and swift advocacy to help this school community thrive without starving its predominantly Latino student population of badly needed resources and support.
The Situation
The Denver Public Schools has forced a vote onto the agenda for the current board's last meeting on November 17, which would halve the current Kepner student population. The Superintendent has stated unequivocally that the purpose of this would be to "co-locate" another school into the Kepner building, possibly an untested charter school that does not currently exist.
Because of recent decisions, Kepner has been set up for failure. As a result of the ill-conceived closures of Rishel and Kunsmiller middle schools, Kepner is now overcrowded, with nearly 1200 students in a building that should comfortably hold around 800. Class size is a profound problem for this school, and the population size now makes safety and services hard to deliver. But to gut the student population by half only to make room for another school does not solve the overcrowding issue. As simple logic will tell you, simply cramming students into fewer classrooms still results in overcrowded classrooms.
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Tue Aug 30, 2011 at 12:33:10 PM MST
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( - promoted by Fong)
While the politics of education reform swirl all around us, it's important to keep clear on what works and what doesn't. The good news is that the Denver Public Schools is actually doing very well in supporting a particular segment of our student population, English learners. The confusing part is that we seem ready to ignore that fact and follow a path that is completely divergent from real, lasting reform. The right path to close the achievement gap and provide opportunity for all Denver's students is clear, and we would do well to heed the evidence.
In 1999, the Department of Justice won a decision on behalf of the Congress of Hispanic Educators which asserted that the Denver Public Schools lacked adequate programs for students of limited English proficiency. DPS was ordered to allow parents to choose either full Spanish-language instruction, sheltered instruction (English with instructions in Spanish) or complete English immersion for their children (Click here to read those court documents).
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Wed Oct 06, 2010 at 11:18:05 AM MST
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( - promoted by Fong)
From national perspective, the Midterm elections of 2010 are far more complex than the pundits may understand themselves. However, after looking at the polling numbers from the PEW Research Center for September 30th to October 3rd, victory may not be as easy as the Republicans think. For instance, in the category of less likely to vote for category, a survey of 1002 adults, 46 percent stated that they would not vote for a candidate that supported the bank bailouts.
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Wed May 26, 2010 at 22:16:37 PM MST
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(Statement from one Latina Denver's School Board Member. - promoted by Fong)
As a child, I sat by my father's knee, as the stories of workers' struggles for workplace fairness and civil rights marches washed over me. It is so important for our young people to understand their rights and fight for justice, and so it was with great pride (and a little matronly concern) that I watched the news about the recent Denver Public Schools student marches and walkouts in the aftermath of the passage of Arizona's SB 1070.
One reason I ran for the Denver Board of Education was to ensure that our Latino youth can not only recite the U.S. Constitution, but also understand it on a deep, intrinsic level. I want for them to embrace it as I do, to wield it as the sword of justice to defend the rights of all, not just Latinos.
Our responsibility as adults, therefore, is to ensure that our youth are armed with truth. So it was with great dismay that I read in a recent issue of Denver's bilingual newspaper, El Semanario, that, "Youth called out legislators who have worked to enact laws...which are discriminatory by nature, including Andrew Romanoff who had voted against in-state tuition for children of undocumented immigrants."
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