More than one in five Hispanic students
drop out of Metro schools before graduating, a rate that is echoed
across the state and nationwide, leaving a wake of young adults with
little education and limited skills. The dropout rate for Hispanics in
Metro is 21.6%, nearly 4 percentage points higher than the dropout rate
for all Metro students and higher than the dropout rate for blacks or
whites. Statewide, the dropout rate for Hispanics last year was 17.1%,
considerably higher than the overall dropout rate of 10.7% despite
Hispanics constitute only 3.2% of all school- children. ''That's a
tremendous concern,'' said Dante Roa, who runs Bienvenidos, a nonprofit
organization that helps connect Hispanics to social services. But while
the rate is alarming, it's understandable to many Hispanic leaders.
They know the hardships that teenagers and their families face as they
try to make it in a land that often is not their own. Some drop out to
get a job and help the family, while others simply see no future in
getting a diploma. Claudia Guevara-Warnatzsch, who emigrated from
Mexico 15 years ago, has two children, ages 11 and 13, in elementary
and middle school in Metro. She says Hispanic parents in general ''are
not as concerned for them to get an education.'' ''It might seem
amazing, but an education is not important to them,'' she said. ''They
come with one thing in mind: to make money.'' Many of Nashville's
Hispanics fled South American countries in search of financial
survival. Once here, however, they often find the only jobs they
qualify for are low-paying, blue-collar jobs or jobs that require hard
physical labor. [more]
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