Ohio Latino Affairs begins statewide
"Road Show" on Education Issues

COLUMBUS - Ohio Latino Affairs Commission, in partnership with numerous state agencies, universities, and community colleges, is beginning a series of town hall meetings this autumn focused on education issues.  Starting with the Columbus meeting in October 8th, the calendar includes sessions in Youngstown, Cleveland, Lorain, Dayton and Cincinnati in October, as well as Toledo and Fremont in November.

“Our track record of work on education issues has a long history, and our recent initiatives started in 2001.” said Ezra C. Escudero, Director of Ohio Latino Affairs.  "Nearly each year since, including our town hall meetings in 2001, our Education Report in 2002, our statewide partnership with the 'Close The Gap Campaign' in 2004, our national level alliance with the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators in 2005, and culminating in our first statewide roundtable meeting in 2006, we have focused in on this critical issue which affects all Ohioans."

The Ohio Latino Affairs Commission has among its statutory mandates a specific call to advise policy makers and officials including the Governor, the General Assembly, and Directors of the state’s departments and agencies on issues affecting Ohio’s Latino population.

During the mini-conferences, expectations include: 

• Conduct a conversation with local Latino leaders and community representatives on the status of issues affecting Latinos’ education in the area. The conversations are designed to address the pressing issues on education, provide the Office of Latino Affairs with up to date information that can be used to advice policy makers and others in order to build greater awareness and understanding of the issues faced in the area of education.  
• Re-visit identified solutions and consider possible new alternatives to improving the state of Latino education in each community.  This includes identifying local partnerships and resources to increase the spirit of collaboration among the different groups (community leaders, parents, educators, administrators, policy makers, etc.)  
• Continue building the distributed leadership model initiated during the Soluciones Conference. Strengthening the distributed leadership model will help each community to ensure that plans and solutions are built around the particular needs of each community.

For additional information, including registration for the meetings, please call the Office of Ohio Latino Affairs at 614-466-8333.

Partner agencies and institutions include:

• Office of the Governor
• Ohio Board of Regents
• Ohio Department of Education
• Columbus State Community College
• The University of Toledo
• Terra Community College
• Youngstown State University
• Cuyahoga Community College
• Lorain County Community College
• Cincinnati State Technical and Community College
• Sinclair Community College

The OLAnet Reports Database & Library has a new Community Issues Brief with resources on and about education, as well as the work of Ohio Latino Affairs over the years.
 

ABOUT Ohio Latino Affairs

The Ohio Latino Affairs Commission is a state government agency with a statutory mandate to advise policy makers and elected officials on issues affecting Hispanic Ohioans, to connect the diverse Latino communities across the state, and to build the capacity of community organizations so they may better serve the fast growing Latino population of Ohio.

#            #            #