HISPANIC CAUCUS ADOPTS EDUCATION PRINCIPLES

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) adopted a set of education principles for the 114th Congress. Tomorrow, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives will take a final vote on H.R. 5, legislation that would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

"Latino students deserve a quality education and these principles define where the Congressional Hispanic Caucus stands on education. Our Caucus has been strong on education. In fact, many of us would not be where we are without our education. ESEA was signed into law in 1965 as a civil rights bill and now more than ever needs to be strengthened. We believe all students in our country, including Latino and English Language Learners, deserve a quality education from the early learning stages through the high school years," said CHC Chairwoman Linda Sánchez.

CHC EDUCATION PRIORITIES IN THE 114TH CONGRESS

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is committed to ensuring that every child in our country has access to a quality education. Since its founding in 1976, the CHC has advocated for the Latino community and America's middle class families in Congress. With the upcoming ESEA reauthorization in the 114th Congress, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has adopted the following P-12 education principles which the Caucus believes are critical to ensuring the advancement of all Latino students.

I. Early Childhood Education

Reauthorize the Head Start Program to expand and improve access to high quality preschool for Latino families, including:

• Maintaining Head Start as a national program

• Reducing disparities in funding and put Head Start on a path to full funding

• Strengthening the educational component of Head Start, particularly with respect to limited English proficient (LEP) children

• Increasing access to Head Start for children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers

• Expanding access to dual language programs in Pre-K programs

• Increasing the number of highly qualified bilingual Head Start and Pre-K teachers

• Expanding access to high quality, full-day pre-kindergarten to Latino four-year olds

II. Elementary and Secondary Education

Reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and strengthen the following areas:

• Full participation of English Language learners and Latino students in the entire curriculum

• Progress on school accountability for Latino students, with emphasis on high school completion

• Increase funding for LEA (Title III), Migrant Education (Title 5, Part C), and Low-income students (Title 5, Part A)

• Expand access to Dual Language Programs

• Expand Early College High Schools for Latino students

• Prepare Latinos and ELs to be college and career ready

• Expand access to AP, IB, STEM and other rigorous curricula

• Address resource equity at the state and local level for Latino students and English Learners

• Dedicate targeted resources to dropout factories in the Latino community

• Establish equity indicators for Latino students and English Language Learners

• Encourage young Latinos to pursue the STEM fields

• Promote healthy school climate for all protected groups: Latinos, English Learners, LGBT students, girls, immigrants, migrant students, students with disabilities, and homeless children and youth

• Prepare and train greater numbers of high quality teachers and principals who serve large populations of Latino and English Learners

• Increase access to more school counselors

• Support increased resources for parental involvement

Efforts to improve technology in the classroom are critical and must:

• Maintain a strong E-rate program, and support and develop efforts, including educator training, to improve the use of technological resources in schools with large low-income and Latino student populations

• Strengthen the education technology programs in the elementary and secondary education

• Expand the use of open educational resources for Latino students