Are kids taking the easy class because they come from homes where the language is spoken or are our kids preparing for a Mexican future?
There has been no increase in the number of students taking a foreign language class in public High School over the past 30 years, yet the number taking Spanish has more than doubled from 1.8 million kids in 1970 to 4.0 million in 2000. French, German, Italian and Russian have lost out.
While we are on the subject. High school drop outs are disproportionately of Mexican origin. The good news is that blacks and whites are not dropping out of high school. At age 21 12% of whites have not completed high school and 13% of blacks have not. For Mexicans who go to school in the U.S., at age 21, 25% have not completed high school.