MB: A majority of students in East Los Angeles are not graduating from high school and are not entering higher education in disproportionate numbers. For example, Roosevelt High School, the largest high school in the country in terms of student population, has 5,500 students with a 65% disappearance rate. In other words, roughly two thirds of the entering freshman class has ‘disappeared’ four years later. Garfield High School, also in East Los Angeles, has a 58% disappearance rate. In the other two high schools where YOC and United Students plan to expand, Wilson and Lincoln High Schools, there is also a similar pattern of disappearance rates.

United Students has been successful in framing the educational crisis in terms of schools not providing adequate resources and opportunities to support all students to complete their high school education and be eligible to attend a four year college or university. The students have focused their efforts on very specific policies to be able to begin to hold the school accountable for improving the quality of education. United Students has organized to build student power to ensure that all students are placed on a college track, and that there be an increase in the number of guidance counselors. (There is an alarming ratio of 400 students for every counselor.) The students are also asking for more intentional education in terms of informing students and their families about the A-G requirements for admissions to the University of California. In addition, United Students asks that opportunities for higher education be made available for undocumented students.

Part of the work of demanding educational justice for YOC and United Students is challenging the penitentiary tracking of Latino youth in inner-city high schools, in particular East L.A high schools. Because of poor economic and educational conditions in East LA, young people are basically tracked into the low-wage economy, the prison system, or the military. We believe that there is a direct correlation between the high disappearance rate in high schools and the large number of young Latinos being incarcerated. So the work of the young people [in United Students] has centered on building student awareness of these issues and putting pressure on policy makers to create schools that provide opportunities for higher education. Fighting for more counselors is not just about getting people in college, but also about creating opportunities so that young people are not tracked into the prison system, the military, and the low-wage economy.

TCLA: What does military recruitment, or the presence of military recruiters, look like in East Los Angeles high schools versus schools in other parts of the city?

MB: We recently learned that there are no JROTC programs in schools in the westside. Most of the JROTC programs that have a specific focus such as the Air Force Academy are south of or in East Los Angeles. The JROTC programs with the most enrollment are located in schools with the largest immigrant populations. Roosevelt, for example, has over 300 students enrolled in their JROTC Program (student population of 5,500). It is highly likely that students will eventually enlist in the military once they graduate from high school. So, it is a recruitment strategy. In a survey conducted by United Students at Roosevelt and Garfield, approximately 72% of seniors at both schools reported that they had a military recruiter come to their class, while less than 30% had a college recruiter come to their classroom.

TCLA: Do you think that students across the city receive roughly the same resources? Do they receive adequate resources?

MB: Schools in the East Side, such as Roosevelt and Garfield, are on a year round schedule. So all students are not at school at the same time. The school year in each of the tracks is shorter by a couple of weeks than schools on a traditional academic calendar. The district has not built any new high schools in the Boyle Heights or East Los Angeles community since they built Roosevelt and Garfield. (The construction of Wilson High School in the late 1960s did help relieve some of the overcrowding.) There was a LA Times article about how inequality gets perpetuated with overcrowding and year round schooling. B track and C track schools have been found to have the least qualified teachers and the fewest AP and honors classes available to students. Overcrowding creates a difficult learning environment, limiting opportunities to learning, which lead to students not being prepared for college.

TCLA: Does overcrowding undermine Brown’s mandate to provide education on equal terms?

MB: Well, it adds a deeper wound, in terms of the institutional neglect of the public education system providing an education on equal terms to students of color. In 1968, young Latina/o students walked out of their East L.A. high schools in protest of very similar concerns that students have now. Back then, students felt their schools were overcrowded and not providing a culturally relevant curriculum. These two major concerns still stand. It is really telling of how this state and this country has not prioritized the education provided to young people of color. In terms of the federal government, it is clear that the priority is military spending and in the state, it is prison spending. It seems as though that is not going to change unless young people and their allies continue to hold the policymakers accountable for providing a quality, relevant education that would engage young people and provide resources so that all young people in our community are educated equally.

TCLA: What should be done more generally to achieve equal educational resources?

MB: I think that one of the things that needs to happen is that Proposition 13 needs to be eliminated. Proposition 13 was an attempt by the right wing to bring about the demise of public education in the inner city. Homeowners in affluent neighborhoods or suburbs no longer have an invested interest in the equal education of all children, in all parts of the city.

TCLA: What actions would you recommend to students or parents interested in joining this struggle?

MB: I think that is important for young people and their allies to come together to identify the major barriers to their education; challenge the notion that it’s young people’s fault that they are not succeeding; and discuss solutions based on a vision of justice for all young people.