The Education Department has reported that the dropout rate among Hispanic students is 32 percent _ substantially higher than the national average of 11 percent.

The federal study said a major reason for the high dropout rate was the language barrier. Among Hispanics who don’t speak English, 83 percent leave school. Among those with a limited proficiency in English, 62 percent drop out.

Unfortunately, such findings shouldn’t be surprising. Year after year, decade after decade, we have heard the same story of how Hispanic schoolchildren encounter language difficulties and how that affects their academic achievement.

By early in the next century, there will be an estimated 80 million Hispanics living in this country. Hasn’t the time come to start thinking about teaching all classes in our public schools in both English and Spanish?

If that idea sounds too revolutionary for some, let’s keep in mind that this bilingual method of education already is used in some schools in Mexico and that it works.

In the United States _ particularly in the Rio Grande Valley, where the school districts are largely Hispanic _ some educators are beginning to discuss the possibility of moving in this direction sometime in the near future.

A first step would be to take the findings of the Education Department’s report seriously.

Many Hispanic families _ both those who are born here and those who come to this country _ are forced to send their children to schools where they are expected to learn in a language not their own. Some youngsters have no problems, but others do.

When the children with language problems run into the thousands (Texas alone had 149,272 Hispanics who left school between 1987 and 1992), it no longer is just the students who are at risk but also the state and the nation.

There are other reasons why the introduction of Spanish into the main school curriculum would pay off in the end, aside from the incentive it offers to the potential dropout to stay in school.

A recent nationwide survey of 936 top corporate executives found that 40 percent want to hire graduates who know the Spanish language.

The Chronicle of Higher Education and the Modern Language Association already have reported that Spanish courses are booming at the undergraduate level in universities throughout the country, partially as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

When one considers the economic and social benefits of all students becoming fluent in at least two languages _ not to mention our proximity to the millions of Spanish-speaking people in Mexico, Central and South America _ it makes sense to begin talking about the status of Spanish in our public schools.

Raul Garcia of Austin conducts research in education.



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