STRATEGIES: Hispanic Education Action Plan; Advocates Applaud Plan... But Propose Fine-Tuning

"The plan is good at getting to issues affecting the academic progress of Latinos, but it's shortsighted because it does not go far enough," said Gumercindo Salas, vice president for governmental relations at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Some of the areas that still need to be addressed, he said, include strengthening federal vocational and technical education programs to better serve Latinos, improving programs that encourage Latinos to pursue higher education beyond the bachelor's degree so thai Latinos move into college faculty positions, and significantly increasing funding to HSIs. "It's important to sustain programs for all of America's youth," [Rodr]íguez said. "I never would say we should work against increasing the funding. But without addressing the issue of how Latinos are served, you are missing a piece in I the plan] and its effort to boost academic progress in the Latino community." "Implementation occurs at the state and local levels, and if you don't have Hispanics pressuring these governments to change the distribution system [of federal funds], these programs may not serve the Latino community," Salas said. "Even though the federal government intended to serve the Latino community, if that state board or Legislature [that distributes the money] is not sympathetic to Latinos, then the money won't go to latinos."