TALAS E-newsletter – July 13

Laredo College has the distinct privilege of topping another important rankings list, this time earning the designation of top Hispanic-Serving Institution by college rankings and student resource website Affordable Colleges Online.

The Affordable Colleges Online annual list of top Hispanic-Serving Institutions ranks schools by looking at specific factors such as the percentage of Latinx student enrollment, student retention, Latinx graduation rate, percentage of students receiving financial aid, student services offered and affordability.

On a steamy day in late June, Lockhart ISD Superintendent Mark Estrada and Lockhart Junior High School Principal Edgar Torres were part of a banner day for Texas educators.

The two LISD administrators helped cut the proverbial ribbon on The Holdsworth Center’s new $200 million campus on Lake Austin. The resort-like facility situated on 44 acres of lakefront property was built by H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt, the center’s founder, to develop leadership skills in Texas educators in a setting intended to rival that of what CEO’s and business executives experience when they go to training and continuing education conferences.

The Houston Chronicle’s “Unfair Burden”, series exposed how Texas companies cut their tax bills by more than $1 billion per year through just one corporate subsidy program.

Chapter 313, known for its place in the state tax code, costs more than $200,000 per job, mostly benefiting the oil and gas industry.

But there’s more to the story: That burdensome cost falls hardest on school districts with high populations of Black and Latino students. Because of the racialized nature of poverty in Texas, the subsidies enjoyed by huge corporations fall heaviest on students of color.

What you’ve heard about asking for a raise is all wrong. But the timing has never been better for you to ask for what you deserve.

The Great Resignation has put employers in a difficult position: employees have more power than ever before, as the labor force seems to be shrinking (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). The Wall Street Journal says that more US workers are quitting their jobs, creating retention challenges all over the place. Post-pandemic employees are evaluating their work/life balance (maybe you are one of them) and change is in the air. But instead of walking out the door, maybe it’s time to climb the career ladder. Before you go out on your own, or turn in your resignation, consider how you might improve your current situation. If a promotion or salary increase is in your near future, make sure you avoid these five mistakes when asking for a raise.

Mackee Mason says families choose his Austin, Texas charter high school because it’s safe, with little bullying or fighting. Mason, the school’s principal and football coach, credits its ethnic studies courses.

The two classes, which students take in ninth and then 11th grade, feature discussion and instruction in LGBTQ history, colonialism, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, police brutality, and exclusionary immigration policies. That allows students, who are predominantly Black and Hispanic, to reflect on their own experiences and learn about others’.

Over the final year, Cameron Elementary college counselor John Casey consoled college students who lost dad and mom to COVID-19. He comforted children grieving the demise of 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams, a Cameron first-grader shot at a McDonald’s drive-through. He helped college students navigate high school functions and educational troubles.

Often, he needed to supply that assist over a display, to college students with their cameras off or in bustling households with little privateness. One youngster went to the toilet and locked the door so they might speak.

Oklahoma recently joined several other states in requiring students to pass the same citizenship test administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in order to graduate from high school.

The measure was put forth by House Speaker Pro Tempore Terry O’Donnell who told The 74 that people who possess a greater understanding of American government would be less likely to riot.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday updated its guidance for U.S. schools reopening in the fall, recommending masking indoors for everyone who is not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and three feet of distance within classrooms.

The agency said school administrators can require indoor mask use even for students and educators who are vaccinated, depending on the needs of the community. Reasons would include schools with children under age 12, who are not currently authorized to receive COVID-19 vaccines, or high rates of COVID-19 transmission in the region.

A historic neighborhood threatened by plans for a sports arena, a bodega that became a hub for Dominicans in Rhode Island and a park where Mexican American students gathered to call for equitable access to education.

Those locations are among the seven Latino heritage sites that preservation scholars say are in need of protection due to their deep cultural and historical ties to the Latino community in the United States.