For Immediate Release
August 28, 2014
Contact: María de Jesús Gómez
559-455-5782
chuyag@legacy.radiobilingue.org
Radio Bilingüe and KPFK to Air “Latino Education: Crisis and Response”
A Live National Community Forum from Boyle Heights – Los Angeles
Wednesday September 17 2014 11am – 2pm PT
“What Can Be Done NOW to turn around the crisis preventing Latino educational success?” Answers will be illuminated in a live Radio Bilingüe-produced bilingual community forum from Boyle Heights, Los Angeles featuring renowned Latino education scholar Patricia Gándara on Wednesday September 17, 2014 from 11am to 2 pm PT. The forum will be broadcast live nationwide on the Radio Bilingüe National Latino Public Radio Network and in Los Angeles by partnering public radio station KPFK 90.7 FM. Hours 1&3 will be conducted in English and Hour 2 in Spanish. The public is invited to attend and participate with questions and comments during the event at Casa 0101 Theater in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, 2009 E. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90033.
Dr. Gándara, Co-Director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, is author of numerous pioneering works on closing Latino education disparities, including “The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies.” She will be joined on the panel by members of “Los MacArturos” – Latino recipients of the MacArthur Foundation’s prestigious “Genius” Fellowships. The hosting community of Boyle Heights is a longstanding working-class Mexican American/Latino neighborhood on Los Angeles’ Eastside, whose schools are part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, second largest district in the nation. With LAUSD’s entire student population three-quarters Latino but battling stark dropout rates, the forum will explore: How severe is the Latino education crisis? What actions are needed to repair the crisis? Who needs to step up to the plate?
This special Radio Bilingue Línea Abierta/Open Line broadcast is part of RB’s series Diploma en Mano/Diploma in Hand, supported by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s initiative American Graduate – Let’s Make it Happen! Each hour will be designed as stand-alone and stations may carry any or all hours live or recorded via radiobilingue.org or Content Depot. The recorded programs will also be posted at PRX, a web platform for distribution of public radio programs:
Hour 1 : 11am-12 noon PT English – Host Richard Gonzales, veteran public media journalist
Hour 2 : 12 noon-1 pm PT Spanish – Host Graciela “Chelis” López of RB’s Línea Abierta
Hour 3 : 1-2 pm PT English – Co-hosted by Gonzales and López
Local broadcast partner for the forum is KPFK 90.7 FM, a listener-sponsored station of the Pacifica Radio Network serving audiences in the Greater Los Angeles area, including the Inland Empire, Santa Barbara, and Southern California. The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) is also partnering in the coordination and promotion of the forum.
Línea Abierta, the first and only Spanish-language news talk show broadcast nationally over the public radio satellite system, is a service of Radio Bilingüe, a national network based in California that distributes programming to more than 100 affiliate stations nationwide.
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