The State of the State for Washington Latinos

Washington’s Representatives are concern about America’s economy. MONEY was a constant theme in all of our conversations. Where should the money go? Where cuts should be made?

The Governor’s Interagency Council on Health Disparities spoke to us about their model of health care. Often times it seems as though health care is about tests, doctors, vaccines, insurance, nutrition among other direct health services; however, it reality health care is much more than that. Health is affected by our immediate surroundings (e.g. quality of home), organizations (e.g. school), communities (e.g. neighborhood), and affected by our society (e.g. public policy).

Therefore, essentially the wellbeing of an individual is really the well-being of a society. At this point I realized how important policies are. Providing the tools and the resources for communities is imperative in order for the whole community to succeed.

The challenge is in identifying the tools that are most effective and efficient in order to financially support those tools. Research is needed for this. However, the research that is necessary is lacking, especially research concerning minorities. The resources available for our government to rely on are limited.

My trip to Olympia made me realize the significance of doing this type of research in order to support and create movement towards certain policies that will reflect the need present in our communities. Latinos are the fastest growing population of the United Sates and their needs are not being met. The well being of the Latinos is the well being of the whole community.

Going to Olympia Washington to speak to the Senators and Legislators of Washington Sate was EMPOWERING! I learned THREE things: Yes, our voices do matter. Yes, we can make a difference. And yes, it is CRITICAL for us to ENGAGE!

An area of great concern is providing quality education to close the achievement gap. Currently in the state of Washington There is a 26% high school graduation gap between Hispanics and Whites. I was excited to learn that the state requested and now has full achievement gap reports for certain minorities and specific recommendations on how to close the gap: Hispanics, African American, Asian American, Pacific Islanders etc. (SB-5973 Addressing the achievement gap).

Recommendations range from providing better teacher training, challenging courses, and even material access; however, little in regards to the school environment is present. In light of the school violence—bullying, harassment, gun-shooting etc—creating a welcoming, respectful, and comfortable school is crucial to successfully closing the achievement gap.

As I spoke to the Governors Gregoire Executive Policy Advisor who focuses on Education I was inform of the increase efforts for school-community programs–programs that bridge the in classroom learning with the real world. This not only increases the student’s involvement in the school but also outside the school, it increases their peer and adult network, as well as allows them to feel a sense of purpose and practicality in their life. Although great, more needs to be done.

I found in Walla Walla High School that RACE MATTERS. We need policies that address the racial inequalities because they are present in schools. Latinos students experience a higher degree of racial jokes and a higher degree of negative stereotype assumptions based on their skin color. They also not only have poorer teacher-student relationships, but a less extensive peer and adult networks as well which limits their access to resources and information in regards to obtaining higher education. Although these experiences are real, students feel hopeless and disempowered.

Wa-Hi has recently implemented a Civility Initiative in all of their primary and secondary schools. THIS IS GREAT!! We need more civility programs that address the violence occurring in schools and that actively focus on enhancing the environment. Yet, race must be actively incorporated in order to be address. Every child deserves the opportunity for a higher education. Every child deserves to feel welcome, comfortable, and respected when they are in school in order to increase their academic performance. I strongly encourage schools and the state to consider civility programs as a means to close the achievement gap.

Parents, students, community members, and organizations, lets start recognizing the importance of (1) school environment (2) race and (3) our ability to advocate change.

No Money?!

After engaging in a rather uncomfortable discussion with Senator Mike Hewitt of our own Legislative District 16, I left wondering how Washington will be able to afford the changes we so desperately need. I asked Senator Hewitt to consider funding a state Earned Income Tax Credit (which was passed last year) and to encourage bilingual outreach of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

“Who would you have me take the money from to implement your suggestions?” he demanded. What he didn’t seem to realize was that my recommendations will actually bring more money into the state.

With an $8 billion dollar deficit, Washington needs as many federal dollars as it can get. The EITC is a federal tax credit available to working families with low incomes. Families can receive up to $4800 a year, enough to boost many families past the poverty threshold. Unfortunately, I found through extensive surveys and interviews that Latinos are unlikely to know about the EITC, and are even more unlikely to claim it. This means there are many people living in poverty that needn’t be.

This should upset you. Simply on a humanitarian level, you should be concerned for these people who should be claiming the tax credit – the mother who can’t afford to buy her 16-year-old son new jeans, the young couple who is evicted because they can’t afford rent. But even if that doesn’t strike a chord, you should be upset because this money belongs to your town! Walla Walla County alone stands to gain an extra $8 million dollars if every eligible person claimed the EITC. I know I can think of a few things to do with an extra $8 million dollars.

The costs of implementing bilingual outreach would be minimal. The IRS already offers many EITC outreach materials, and some in Spanish. Senator Hewitt need only encourage the use of these materials, as well as provide training for Spanish speakers at free tax preparation sites. A simple public acknowledgement of the problem may prompt local tax preparers who work with Latinos to inform their clients of the EITC and to make sure those who are eligible are actually claiming it.

Click here for my full report.

Going to Olympia to discuss policy with state legislators becomes a tricky task when said legislators are dealing with an $8 billion shortfall in the state’s budget. Everyone is hyperaware of the potential budgetary implications of the issues you bring up, and quick to point them out. This made for a somewhat challenging environment for our group of students to pitch their policy recommendations. On the other hand, the budgetary focus of our reception illuminated an important aspect to my research that I had not previously considered.

My colleague Pedro Galvao mentioned in a recent post the importance of following laws with more adequate enforcement. What this trip emphasized for me is the importance of following laws with proper funding.

Along with classmates Nick Dollar and Pedro Galvao, I researched Latino voting rights in city council elections in Pasco, Washington. Our research was designed in part to look for violations of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA). Among other provisions, the VRA protects minority voting rights by requiring certain jurisdictions to provide bilingual elections materials and voter outreach.

My research found that the implementation of bilingual programs and election ballots in Pasco doubled Latino voter turnout in the first two years after they were introduced. This is an important achievement in a town where Latinos comprise 56% of the population, yet comprise only 5% of voters in local elections and have no representation on the city council.

The situation is very similar in other towns in eastern Washington, indicating a widespread need for bilingual election outreach. The VRA responds to this need in its regulations, but the law was passed with no budgetary allocation to help states and counties actually pay for bilingual programs. A staff member of the Washington Legislature’s Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs who we spoke with about our research aptly called the bilingual requirements of the VRA an “un-funded mandate.” That is, the federal government has required action on bilingual election materials by local government but provided no source of funding. Practically this makes these programs dead in the water for local and state governments facing tight budgets.

This revelation comes as no shock, since difficulties in translating policy from the national to local levels is an all-to-common feature of federalism. However, this comment did reinforce in my mind the need for Washington State to consider drafting its own voting rights act, something already accomplished in California. The budget shortfall likely prevents such action for the moment, but drafting a state voting rights act might not only help to provide more funds for bilingual programs, it could also reinstate the important judicial recourses to voting rights violations that have been progressively eroded in the federal Act by a number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

As my colleague Alisa Larsen-Xu pointed out in her post To Cut or Not to Cut, in this time of severe economic crisis it is incredibly important that we figure out which programs are most crucial for government funding. I would add that it is also crucial that we find ways government can influence policy without spending money.

Alisa noted that there is a neighborhood organization in Walla Walla called Commitment to Community (C2C) that has had great success in engaging Latinos in the greater community. I also worked with C2C but took a different approach, analyzing their strategies of engagement to figure out why they have had such success.

I found that the C2C strategy can be divided into three categories: trust, empowerment and a sense of common group identity. C2C builds trusting relationships in the neighborhoods by literally going door to door and talking to people about their needs. They find out what people want and then help them to make it happen; such as painting murals over graffiti. By bringing the neighborhood together to fix problems they all face (such as crime) they create a sense of common group identity.

So what happens if we apply these strategies to government?

One of the things we asked legislators in Olympia to do was to encourage more Latino political participation through the provision of voter education materials in Spanish. The representatives were quick to tell us that they couldn’t help us because of a lack of funds.

What if instead of asking them for funds, we asked them for leadership? And not just any type of leadership but a type that utilizes the above mentioned strategies, trust, empowerment and common group identity.

What if those legislators all went back to their home districts and made a real effort to get to know their Latino constituents? What if they had a town hall in Spanish where they responded to their constituents questions? What if they worked with the community to set up volunteer booths where Spanish-speakers could go to have their ballots translated, thereby avoiding printing costs? What if they did outreach to their non-Latino constituents and told them that  problems the Latino community faces are problems that we all face, thereby creating a sense of common group identity?

It is clear that something needs to change. Perhaps we need to stop looking at our representatives as mere piggy banks and start looking to them to provide the type of leadership that they were elected for.

Going to Olympia gave some perspective on how much this economic crisis has affected Washington State. Almost everyone we met mentioned the difficulty in obtaining any funds or even keeping pre-existing funds for programs or projects. While the economic crisis gave Representatives an easy excuse to dismiss whoever knocked on their door (“I’m not against it, there’s just no money!”), it also gave us an opportunity to present a sense of urgency in our research. Most of us could easily link the economic crisis to the stability of the Latino community in relation with our projects. Whether it’s closing the education achievement gap or improving living standards for farm workers (which would improve agriculture), the benefits can be numerous for our economy.

I was particularly impressed that here in Walla Walla, the local government made room for Commitment to Community in their budget, despite the crisis. The local neighborhood based organization seems to be making quite the impact in the area, inspiring low-income residents to improve their neighborhood quality. The fact that the government is giving them money shows that these organizations work! And, not only do they work, but they are valued by the very people who normally wouldn’t think twice about adding funds to the budget for a whole new organization.

The local government has recognized the importance that–especially in hard times–people need an extra push to get motivated. Community organizations like Commitment to Community have already created trust among who they work with so they are perfect for helping residents become more proactive in their community—which is exactly what many politicians want! I hope other cities can use Walla Walla as an example…

On March 15, 2009 there were 4,000 international observers present to watch the Salvadoran presidential elections. They came from the European Union, the U.S. Embassy, universities from all over the United States and Latin America, U.S. churches, and lawyer associations. I was one of the 4,000 diverse international observers.

My experience as an international observer caused me to reevaluate my own research on political mobilization in Pasco, Washington. In my research, I criticized political parties in Pasco for their lack of outreach and mobilization efforts towards immigrants and minorities. In the past, political parties in the U.S. provided transportation to the polls and even went as far as feeding families in need as a way to influence their vote. This still happens today in the U.S. on a smaller scale but in El Salvador, political parties made this a regular practice during the 2009 presidential campaign.

For example, the right-wing ARENA party, who had dominated the presidency for the past 20 years, bought fried chicken from a franchise akin to KFC and fed the many families in rural El Salvador who could not afford such luxuries. Other common practices were giving away bags of rice with a political party’s propaganda plastered on the front and of course the classic ride to the polling site. In light of the extreme poverty and the material incentives that political parties had to offer, I couldn’t help but view this as a form of bribery.

It now seems to me that voter mobilization efforts, whether in the U.S. or El Salvador, would be better left to nonpartisan organizations. Instead of lamenting the fact that U.S. political parties are no longer mobilizing immigrants and minorities as they did in the past, I now see their lack of voter mobilization as a positive change. This is not to say that Get-Out-The-Vote campaigns by political parties in the United States are based on bribery. Rather, I mean to say that nonpartisan efforts to mobilize immigrants and minorities is a surer way to guarantee that the decision of the voter is truly their own. For this reason, nonpartisan organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, should consider launching a voter registration campaign and voter outreach programs when the next election cycle comes around.

Many Americans fulfill their civic duties by sending in letters or calling and emailing their state representatives to voice their concerns on particular issues. Few citizens, however, will take the effort to travel three, four, or five hours to talk face to face with their state representatives in order to change their communities for the better. This is exactly what eight-hundred Latinos from cities like Pasco, Yakima, and other eastern Washington towns did on March 13 for the annual Hispanic/Latino Legislative Day.

The eight-hundred Latino youth, adults, and elderly set a record high for the event where they voiced their concerns in Olympia over issues like education, the economy, housing, and immigration. On this day, state representatives, their assistants, and Governor Chris Gregoire herself spoke with the crowd and listened to what these citizens had to say.

This event exemplified the United State’s most valued acts, the practice of democracy, of meeting face to face to deliberate and discuss citizen’s most pressing needs.

Of course, the event didn’t happen by itself, the Hispanic/Latino Legislative Organization organizes this event every year. 

My research showed that community organizations like the Hispanic/Latino Legislative Organization make civic engagement possible among a greater number of people, no matter if they have a lot of experience at the state Capitol or no experience at all. My research also showed that community organizations are some of the most effective vehicles to increase civic participation among Latino communities. And of course, the Hispanic/Latino Legislative Organization’s most recent event further proves this point.

This is why community organizations in general need to be strengthened in Washington. Volunteer with a community organization or donate to their cause; when we have a working democracy where everyone has a say in the big decisions, we have a better community and a better nation.

For more information about my research, click here

voter education programs are sorely needed

If there is one thing that the many meetings we went to as a group from Seattle to Olympia taught me is that there are already laws in place to empower communities, but very little enforcement. In these laws, one finds great potential for minority empowerment, but without enforcement, they seem great, but fail to materialize. Take for instance RCW 28B which is already in the books, a section of this law requires state funded institutions of higher education to conduct voter outreach and provide voter education programs. Many institutions shirk at the requirement and fulfill it by merely placing a link on their website.

The research conducted by Tim Shadix and myself on Latino accessibility to the vote shows that vote education programs are key to increasing voter turnout. The problem is urgent: in Walla Walla Latinos are roughly 20% of the population but are only 2.5% of those who turnout on Election Day. In Pasco the figure is even more startling, though Latinos make up 56% of the city’s population, they are only 5% of those who turn out to vote. For instance, the gross Latino disenfranchisement in Franklin County could be greatly reduced if Columbia Basin College were to do more outreach.

Colleges have a tremendous potential of doing voter education program. In fact the office of the Secretary of State even has a campus outreach program in effect. However, it’s only been in place at one college campus. The problem is the person in charge of the campus outreach program already has many other, essential, responsibilities on her plate. Colleges need to take more initiative, and the state needs to be more proactive in prodding them to truly enforce the law.

Our projects:
• Raising the standard of living (income, housing, education)
• Voting rights
• Civic engagement
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