Abogados de Inmigracion

Putting this controversy aside, the members of the legislature and their staff must apply the following information into the fulfillment of a plan of action. The immigrant movement has failed the Hispanic and Haitian immigrant, the Chinese immigrant as well, and others in the field of education. Some programs have been opened, but in traditional ways that really reach only a few. Yes a few! In your districts you want to network with the non-for-profit institutions, the churches, the labor organizations, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA, the Salvation Army, the Hip Hop Summit, the consulates, the community boards, and the schools. You want to affect the housewife, the laborer, the gang member, the regaetton, the person who writes beats and the young dropout whose dream of playing sports has failed or succeeded (the boxer preparing for the fight), and the person released from prison or detention. You have to think why food drives work out. Obviously because so many people in the community have given. We raise billions after disasters because so many give, not just the wealthy. We mobilize the community and that is what is needed. The President of the United States has made his speech this week and he says the undocumented have to learn English. The GED in Spanish and French is critical for the success of millions of those people and it has to be done now. My experience shows me that people neglect the GED for decades and cannot move up the ladder into better jobs with more security and benefits. As a quick illustration, I tell my graduates to apply for FEDEX and UPS, even before taking the test. Compare this with other educators and programs. Books can be provided to the community to help people realize their goals and double the number of diplomas, rocketing people into new fields that they never dreamed were possible. The Surgeon General of the United States and the President of the National Hispanic Bar Association are great examples and so is Henry Kissinger. Did Bill Gates need a GED? I believe he did to get into Harvard. Let us not follow leaders who have incomplete programs for immigrants that are poorly funded and be great leaders.

Your district offices need my flyers (available in English. Spanish, Polish right now, but can be made available in Mandarin and other languages) and information to motivate people quickly. We can mobilize people through the previously mentioned institutions, your offices, posters, public service announcements, and your speeches. Senator Efrain Gonzalez and Assembly Adriana Espaillat mentioned the GED recently in Hostos Community College recently and this was great but they directed the community’s attention to this powerful and important issue. Fernando Ferrer stopped short of telling a million New York City residents to get a GED when he told people we have to build worker’s skills. His comments fell flat on my ears and I am sure you would agree they were too general and not backed by a revolutionary plan to help the people. One more sentence that included GED and an initiative for the city would have done wonders for his campaign.

I would like to thank Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr. for suggesting we seek funding for Public Service announcements from Cablevision. Chairman Adriano Espaillat’s suggestion that a packet with GED information should be prepared for all members of the Caucus was excellent. We have to mobilize their communities quickly and double the number of diplomas earned by people in the district.

Only eight percent of African Americans with known ethnicity took the GED in 2003. Since there were over 9,000 people who ethnicity was unknown, it is not really clear how close to eight percent the figure really is. I personally do not know how New York State acquired the date. And this data seems to have been discontinued in 2004. It is unfortunate that we do not have the data, but each member of the Senate and Assembly should find out that the figures are in his and her district. Falling behind in diplomas earned is bad for the residents of the district and the state too. Only one person tested in French in 2004 in the entire state of New Jersey (zero the year before). Now that sounds low to me and there was a huge drop in New York on the French test, affecting Haitians most of all. The numbers declined in one year from 828 to 551. Hopefully those numbers will rise sufficiently in 2005.

I know it is not easy to build GED awareness among people who have earned their high school and college diplomas. Even at the Dominican Event in Hostos Community College, one of the panelists privately told me she was against a test that was “watered down.” She also said the Dominican people in the Dominican Republic need jobs, not the GED. The GED in the hands of Dominicans will permit them to be eligible for work outside of their country. Presently people with high school diplomas, for example, are eligible to work in Canada by agreement with President Leonel Fernandez with that country. Many of the poor people in rural areas where the educational system breaks down can only be eligible if we bring the GED quickly to them. Dominicans who have earned the GED here too would be eligible, giving credence to a national plan for all Dominicans. Also Dominicans with a GED will be permitted to participate in the growing online distance learning from other countries and make Dominicans eligible for universities here and in other countries. The Dominican universities, just like our colleges, will determine what else Dominicans will need (if they will need anything) to enter the university. Knowledge acquired through GED study is needed for people who eventually find themselves in their own business. The person who provided this negative information about the GED feels that the people of the Dominican Republic are exciting. Sure poets, writers, artists, lawyers, doctors, and others are often exciting people because they have education, not only jobs. The GED is not really watered down because it is designed so that forty percent of students who are expected to graduate from high school on time fail the test. I have seen professionals and even billionaires make errors that good GED students do not make.

THE PEOPLE THAT YOU REPRESENT ARE COUNTING ON YOU TO DO SOMETHING BETTER FOR YOUR COMMUNITY.

MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NY 11749
GEDHOTLINE@AOL.COM
631-348-1341
www.geocities.com/gedhotline
www.ahorre.com/ged
www.ahorre.com/noticias