Clinton aims to cut Hispanic dropout rate by 50 percent

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) set a goal Wednesday to cut the high school dropout rate for Hispanics in half if she is elected president, calling the lack of high-school-educated Hispanics a “crisis.”

Speaking at a sparsely attended Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) forum, Clinton focused on education issues and advocated a $100 million investment in a public-private summer internship program that would help minority students network for potential future jobs.

{mosads}Pointing to her campaign manager, first-generation Mexican-American Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton said Solis Doyle’s experience with undereducated parents fighting to get their child educated is all too common.

“If we had time, every one of you could stand up and tell that story,” Clinton said. “That’s what we have to keep alive. That is what is at stake in this election. I feel that the American dream is receding for too many Americans.”

Clinton appeared after three other Democratic presidential contenders — Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (Alaska) — spoke at the CHCI forum. Six Hispanic members of Congress presented one question each to the candidates, who then had 15 minutes to speak and address the questions.

While Clinton emphasized education, Biden spent much of his time challenging conventional wisdom about the Hispanic community.

He emphasized that a majority of United States immigrants are not Hispanic and said he doesn’t consider it a minority anymore, given that the community is growing so rapidly, comprising about one in five American children.

“We keep talking about it in terms, as if it’s divorced, as if we’re talking about a sliver of America’s population and America’s interest,” Biden said. “It’s becoming the mainstream of America.”

He also said Hispanics are severely under-represented in the federal government and in the American economy, and he pledged that the community would be well-represented in his administration and his appointments, including to the federal courts.

Kucinich said he would change the education system to teach every child to speak Spanish.

“We need all of the children in this country to learn Spanish at an early age, not English only,” Kucinich said.

The candidates spent relatively little time discussing illegal immigration policy, which was the subject of one of the questions.

Biden and Kucinich expressed sympathy for the plight of immigrant families trying to make better lives for their families, while Gravel promised to provide illegal immigrants with green cards immediately.

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Clinton briefly reaffirmed her support for a path to legalization and emphasized the need for increased border security. Discussing the struggles of the Hispanic community, she at several points segued to foreign policy, saying that “America’s standing worldwide is as low as it’s ever been.”

Following the forum, Clinton officially released her Hispanic agenda, which expands on the ways in which many of her current proposals would affect that community.

Of the six Hispanic Democrats who posed questions to the candidates, five of them have endorsed Clinton’s candidacy: Reps. Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.), Lucille Roybal-Allard (Calif.), Grace Napolitano (Calif.), Henry Cuellar (Texas) and Rubén Hinojosa (Texas). The sixth, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (Calif.), has yet to endorse a candidate.