Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — StudentsFirst founder and former D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee will join new Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson and state and national Hispanic leaders Friday, July 15, in Fort Lauderdale to discuss how educational access can be expanded to ensure Hispanic students succeed.
The education-focused town hall meeting is the featured event of the Coalition to Ensure Educational Opportunities for Hispanic Children to Succeed, which is being sponsored by the South Florida-based Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options. Hispanic CREO President and CEO Julio Fuentes will moderate the talk, which starts at 3 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six, 2301 S.E. 17th Street, in Fort Lauderdale.
Panel participants will discuss how quality teachers and education reform strategies such as enhanced and expanded school options can help address the achievement gap and graduation rate among Hispanic students nationwide.
Rhee formed StudentsFirst in 2010 after stepping down from a three-year term as head of District of Columbia schools. The grassroots movement advocates putting children at the center of changes in the public educational system. Robinson, the secretary of education to Virginia and the former president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, was just unanimously chosen by Florida’s Board of Education to be the state’s next commissioner of education.
Other panelists are:
• Sen. Anitere Flores of Florida’s 38th Senate District;
• Sergio Rodriguez, president of Hispanic Elected Local Officials; Alderman, New Haven, Conn.;
• Andrew Moore, senior fellow at the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education and Families
The event is co-hosted by the Hispanic Elected Local Officials (HELO), a constituency group of the National League of Cities and is taking place during HELO’s board retreat. HELO and HCREO are partners in educating policymakers on the state of Latino education and how to reduce disparities in Latino educational attainment.
The forum will be the focal point for an afternoon that will bring together groups as diverse as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Coalition of Hispanic Instructors in Support of Parental Awareness (CHISPA) and the Step Up For Students scholarship program for low-income students in Florida.
Their participation showcases how making the educational success of Latinos a top priority will take the commitment and work of a diverse group of people who possess a combination of talents and perspectives, Fuentes said.
“It’s important that we recognize that the success of Hispanic students is rooted in providing their families the opportunity and access to a better education in the setting that is best suited for the child,” he said.
About Hispanic CREO
Founded in 2001, HCRO seeks to address the crisis in Hispanic education by informing Hispanic families about school choice and reform. The organization counts civil rights and Hispanic business leaders, ministers and public school educators among its supporters. And it is the only national public policy Hispanic organization dedicated solely to K-12 education reform.
About the National League of Cities
The National League of Cities is the nation’s oldest and largest organization devoted to strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership and governance. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans.
Email this post
