Dive Brief:
- "Critical Choices in Post-Recession California" — a new report by the Migration Policy Institute, a D.C. think tank — urges state lawmakers to strengthen educational opportunities for immigrant populations.
- The study says the economic prosperity of California, and the rest of the nation, relies on the educational attainment of young immigrants.
- The report encourages state leaders to take advantage of recent reforms and the recovering economy to improve education opportunities that may have been scrapped due to lower funds.
- California is currently home to a quarter of the nation's immigrants and, according to the report, educates more than one-third of America's English-language learners.
Dive Insight:
The report's call to action is a result of a currently dismal status quo surrounding immigrant education. According to the study, 30% of first-generation immigrants between 21and 26 in California don’t have a high school diploma — and that number drops far lower to 13% on a national level. Additionally, while the average four-year graduation rate nationally is 80%, it's only 63% for English-language learners.
"We can’t afford to leave behind such a huge part of the school population,” Christopher Edley — a law professor and former dean at the UC Berkeley law school, and a former co-chair of the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission — told Ed Surge. “We have to make a moral commitment that each and every child deserves an effective instructional strategy.”