Tagged: fronteras

Preschool works. There is a wealth of evidence that early education is key when it comes to narrowing the achievement gap between Latino children and their peers. But across the country and this region, access to quality affordable preschool is lacking. As Jude Joffe-Block reports in this final installment of the Fronteras series on the Latino Achievement gap, a state-funded pre-K program in Nevada that is achieving results. 

An estimated one in five children in the U.S. speaks a language other than English at home. In most of these homes, that language is Spanish. And yet the vast majority of these children are taught strictly in English at school. Some educators believe this is part of the reason Latino children are lagging in school compared to their white and Asian peers.

In the last fifteen years, California, Arizona, and Massachusetts have all replaced bilingual education with English Immersion.  This was supposed to help close the achievement gap. But by most measures, it hasn’t. 

Nationwide, Latinos attend preschool in lower numbers; drop out rates are higher, and fewer Latinos get college degrees.  But for Hispanic girls and women of college age-that gap disappears.  

Is it worth 300-thousand dollars to make your SUV battle-ready? To many professionals living and working along the Mexico border, the answer is yes. As Fronteras Changing America Desk correspondent Hernán Rozemberg reports, a Texas company has a growing list of high-profile clients who are spending big bucks armoring themselves against the violence of Mexico’s bloody drug war.

In Las Vegas Nevada the heart of the Latino community is Rancho High School.  The school has become a campaign touchstone for politicians courting Hispanic voters. In fact, during the last presidential election, candidate Barack Obama visited Rancho not once, but twice. Yet nearly half of the Latino students who enroll at the school, never finish. 

A new report by the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, finds that the number of youth in juvenile hall in San Diego County is on the rise, and made up primarily of Hispanics.  From the Fronteras Changing America Desk, Ruxandra Guidi has the story.

Police in Page, Arizona, are worried about people freezing to death after a detox center on the border of the Navajo Nation closed. From Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports for the Fronteras Changing America Desk.

Cities and towns in the Southwest have long relied on development fees to fund their growth. Now a new law in Arizona restricts how much development money cities can collect, and what they can use that money for.  Devin Browne reports for the Fronteras Changing America Desk.

With more than 10 million Mexicans living in the United States, Mexico is trying to get more expatriots to vote in their country's upcoming presidential election. This holiday season is the final push to get voters registered before the mid January deadline. From the Fronteras Changing America Desk in Las Vegas, Jude Joffe-Block reports.

It’s been seven months since an untended camp site sparked Arizona's largest wildfire.  It will be decades before the forests grow back.  From the Fronteras Changing America Desk, Al Macias reports on how Mother Nature and humans are working to help wildlife.

Ever since Arizona's controversial S-B-10-70 became law last year, other states and cities have tried to follow its example. But as Ruxandra Guidi reports for the Fronteras Changing America Desk, few cities have defied both state and federal immigration laws like the city of Escondido, California.

After sailing through the U.S. House of Representatives, a bill that proponents called a small, but significant, step toward immigration reform has met a roadblock in the Senate. From the Fronteras Changing America Desk, Jill Replogle has the story.

Sixteen people were arrested at the Salt River Project’s offices in Tempe Arizona on Friday. As Devin Brown reports from the Fronteras Changing America Desk, the protesters want the utility company to stop operating their coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation.

The number of Americas over age 65 grew faster than any other age group in the country. From the Fronteras Changing America Desk Monica Ortiz Uribe reports that retirees contributed to most of the growth in the southwest.

A national conservative Hispanic group is calling for Texas Governor Rick Perry to drop out of the presidential race. From the Fronteras Changing America Desk, Hernán Rozemberg has more.