Arizona |
Phoenix, AZ – The state of Arizona has been the site of major success this year for both Hispanic CREO and the national school choice movement.
Throughout 2006, Hispanic CREO conducted 143 workshops focusing on informing parents of the school options available to them and motivating them to express their stories and concerns. We had an overwhelming turnout of 5,579 parents and community leaders attending our workshops, town halls, and events.During this legislative session, Hispanic CREO mobilized over 80 Latino parents in a fierce campaign to influence key legislators to pass three school choice bills by:
- attending 12 rallies;
- visiting legislators;
- holding public demonstrations at the state Capitol;
- phone banking; and
- intense media outreach.
Thanks to Hispanic CREO’s constant, visible presence in the community through the media, Latinos were well informed of the Governor’s vetoes on school choice measures. This resulted in a 21 percent drop in the Governor’s approval rating amongst Hispanics. Hispanic CREO capitalized on these polling results by holding a press conference at the capitol, which was followed by a rally. Three days later, the Governor allowed the Corporate Tax Credit to become a law without her signature.
This success gave CREO the opportunity to establish itself as the experts on school choice. Every Monday on Arizona al Día (Telemundo), Hispanic CREO hosts a segment.
Please read our most recent editorial, "Choose hope, not hypocrisy, for Arizona's children" published in the Tucson Citizen.
Colorado |
Denver, CO - Hispanic CREO partnered with the Daniels Fund and Entravision in a yearlong media campaign focused on answering some of the problems Latino families face regarding their children’s education.The project increases parental involvement through Hispanic CREO’s parent workshops and grassroots outreach activities. It aims to educate, inform, and mobilize Hispanic parents in Denver. Participants gain knowledge on navigating their local educational system, understanding their rights and options, and becoming self-advocates for their children’s education.
To learn more about our efforts, please see our media coverage from CBS news.
Measurable
Number of TV Spots aired: Number of Radio Spots aired: 2006 traffic count to Hispanic CREO website: Media coverage 84
Calls to Call Center
A key element in this program is our parent training workshops, which are based on Hispanic CREO’s parent organizing model of building trust and relationships, increasing self-confidence, and testing advocacy skills.
To date, Hispanic CREO has conducted 136 parent training workshops in Colorado with over 2,100 parents in attendance. Over 6,000 parents have attended our two town hall meetings to discuss the critical issues affecting the Latino community.
In addition, this year Hispanic CREO and LARASA published a free bilingual parent resource guide featuring information on educational issues,as well as nearby public and private schools. We have distributed over 10,000 parent resource guides in the Denver community to date. To download the Colorado bilingual parent resource guide, please click here.
Florida |
Miami, FL - Hispanic CREO mobilized its Florida affiliates, specifically business and religious leaders, in order to organize a rally in February of this year to show support for Florida’s Opportunity Scholarship Program. After the Florida Supreme Court ruled the program unconstitutional on the basis of the state's uniformity clause, CREO rallied in hopes of saving the program.
This is, by far, the worst school choice decision in history.
Nevertheless, Hispanic CREO continues to gain momentum among the Hispanic community when it held its first statewide summit in downtown Miami. This one day event gathered 150 business leaders, faith leaders, and parents, who committed to protect school choice programs at risk by contacting legislators and media after attending the sessions provided by CREO.
New Jersey |
Trenton, NJ - Early this year, Puerto Rican Panorama (an ABC public affairs show in Philadelphia, PA) featured Hispanic CREO to discuss school choice initiatives in New Jersey.They also exposed the first-ever call for a "grito" (grito is Spanish for an outcry over injustice), a national school choice activist list building campaign.
In May 2006, Hispanic CREO and the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey hosted a statewide conference titled “Taking Control of our Children’s Education.” This one-day event brought over 300 Latino leaders and parents together to learn about parental involvement and some of upcoming legislative efforts to offer inner city children a voucher for private school attendance.
A powerful keynote speech by Dr. Shawn McCollough, former Superintendent of Maricopa School District in Arizona, inspired community leaders to support public schools by enacting school choice programs. Numerous studies have shown that if schools compete for students, public schools can no longer take students for granted and will have to improve schools in order to keep students.
In addition, Hispanic CREO conducted two grasstops meetings in southern New Jersey regarding the crisis in Latino education followed by writing workshops. Daily letters were written in a 12 day period, when the Senate Education Committee was considering the discussion of a school choice bill.
This year, we welcome the Atlantic County Puerto Rican Parade as an affiliate.
Texas |
Austin, TX - Through the work of our affiliate, the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC), Hispanic CREO has been actively working to mobilize its forces for the upcoming legislative battle to pass a school choice bill that would allow 550,000 children have access to a better education.
On August 23rd, CONLAMIC hosted a statewide inter-denominational gathering to include over 200 Baptist, Pentecostal, Assembly of God and Catholic leaders to discuss critical issues in Latino education. At this event, CONLAMIC Texas introduced and passed a resolution sent to the Governor and Lt. Governor demanding school choice.
Senate Education Hearing - A group of daring Latinos voiced their support for school choice programs by testifying in front of Senate Education Committee on Friday, October 13.
This coalition of Hispanic parents and faith based leaders brought together by Hispanic CREO represented the voice of 139,803 economically disadvantaged students, most of whom are Hispanic children trapped in one of 890 failing public schools.
To end the year, Hispanic CREO held a vigil at the state capitol in Austin to tell legislators that all parents want for Christmas is School Choice.In preparing for our 2007 efforts, Hispanic CREO will host a school choice rally on Wednesday, Febuary 7, 2007, in Austin. Many have already prepared for this event, have you? Read more on how others have been getting involved for the greatest day on earth. (Please read media coverage from Denton Record-Chronicle and Dallas Morning News)
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HISPANIC COUNCIL FOR REFORM AND EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS 2600 Virginia Avenue NW, Suite 408 Washington, D.C. 20037 (202) 625-6766 Fax (202) 625-6767 |
Washington D.C. - Hispanic CREO members, trustees and staff mourn the loss of Dr. Milton Friedman. ----------------------------- by Cal Thomas "In 1976, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy. |
Hispanic CREO in Ohio |
Columbus, OH - At the beginning of May, Hispanic CREO began short-term operations to inform and help Latino parents to apply for the Ohio Educational Choice Scholarship program (EdChoice). EdChoice provides a limited number of scholarships to students who attend persistently under-performing public schools. Hispanic CREO helped register 480 Latino students of 2,987 EdChoice recipients. |
El Grito |
As you know, in May of this year Hispanic CREO officially launched a national call to action entitled the “American Hispanic Grito: Justice, By Choice.” Since its official launch on May 9th, CREO has already received support from over ten thousands concerned citizens across the country. Thus far, support for this initiative has been acquired largely by “word of mouth” advertising and our own internal communications with our members and affiliates, including an endorsement by our largest affiliate CONLAMIC. |