Youth Radio - Topic: Barack Obama

Obama’s Goal Of U.S Ranking #1 In Number of College Grads by 2025 In Jeopardy

squevedo — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:57:30 -0600

President Barack Obama’s dream of making the United States the number one developed country in the world by 2025 might take some time to be realized, based on an article in The New York Times.

A country’s rank depends on multiple variables, including the number of people with college degrees. According to the Times‘ article, the rate in which the United States is gaining college graduates gives little chance for Mr. Obama’s goal to be realized, at least not by 2025. The United States current rank is 12th in the world, with a rate of 41.6% of people ages 25 to 34 with Associate Degrees or higher. According to the article:

“From 2000 to 2009, the report noted, the percentage of adults with associate degrees or higher increased by just 3 percent. If that pace holds steady, by 2025 the United States will fall nine percentage points below the president’s goal, with 46 percent of adults holding college degrees.”

North Korea is number one on the list with a rate of 57.9%.

The report does offer solutions in the form of a 10-step plan you can read below:

1. Provide universal preschool education to those living below the poverty line so that their children can begin school prepared.

2. Create a higher ratio of high school and college counselors per student and make colleges more transparent in the planning process for student.

3. Create more safety nets for students at risk of dropping out and create systems to pin-point these students earlier.

4. Align elementary through high school curriculum with international standards so that students are prepared not just for college but life and work after high school.

5. Improve the quality of teachers being hired and focus on recruiting more teachers and keeping them in the profession.

6. Make the college admission process simpler so that first generation applicants can easily navigate their way through it.

7. Create incentives to for colleges to increase enrollment and graduation of low income and first-generation students. In addition to this, make the Financial Aid process more transparent and provide more need-based grants.

8. Keep colleges accessible to everyone by controlling college costs, using resources wisely and being vigilant about making sure states recognize their obligation to funding higher education.

9. Reduce dropout rates, make transferring schools easier and using data as a jumping off point in which to look at methods of increasing two-year and four-year college graduation rates.

10. Provide those attending adult education programs with better outreach programs, veterans’ benefits, and student aid to increase opportunity beyond secondary education.

Facebook Wants To Even Out -- Recruits Republicans

rgee — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:47:56 -0500

Robyn Gee, Turnstyle News

With election season on a roll, it’s time to look at strategy -- and President Obama’s Facebook page has over 22 million “likes.” The Atlantic reports that Facebook hired five GOP strategists to join their outreach team in an effort to amplify their Republican presence, and not seem so disconnected to the Democratic party.

As of now, Republican candidates aren’t quite keeping up. Mitt Romney’s page has one million likes, and Michelle Bachman’s page doesn’t have a picture.

Obama attracted a lot of young voters for the 2008 election with his social media savvy. Studies have shown that college students who are politically vocal on Facebook are likely to be involved in other forms of political activity, and in general, the Pew Research Center writes that Facebook users are generally more politically engaged than most people. But Facebook is not just young people any more.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center called, “Social Networking and Our Lives,” over half of Facebook’s users are over the age of 35. We have seen Facebook take an active role in journalism with the creation of Facebook for Journalists; now Facebook is owning its role in politics by reaching out to these GOP strategists to help their party “get in the game.”

A Perfect Storm Brewing For Student Vets: No Human Resources

rgee — Thu, 26 May 2011 14:32:42 -0500

In 2008, President Barack Obama promised that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan would begin in the summer of 2011, and troops would be coming home from the Middle East. Summer's almost here. What will these new veterans do next? And are we ready to support them financially with open arms?

This is the third year that the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill will be available to veterans as an educational grant. The bill pays for a veteran’s tuition and fees, provides a housing allowance, and a stipend for books and supplies. Since the bill was made available in 2009, the amount of veterans taking advantage of it has increased by thousands.

According to the National Center for Veteran Analysis and Statistics (NCVAS), 34,393 veterans took advantage of the Post 9.11 G.I. Bill in 2009, and that number jumped to 221,900 veterans in 2010. Imagine how many new student veterans will claim this benefit for the next academic year.

What Veterans Are Facing

For veterans that have their sights set on a diploma, the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill is a godsend. However, taking advantage of this grant can be hell. Coming out of a rigid, no slack environment, where most decisions are made by someone of a higher rank - it’s now up to the veteran to:

a) choose a school

b) fill out applications

c) write the essays

d) take the SAT’s

e) retrieve your high school transcripts

f) take advantage of your veteran benefits... and the list goes on.

At San Francisco State University, the student veterans organization on campus has seen a 30 percent increase in numbers since 2009, according to Rogelio Manaois, the director of the Veteran Services Program at SFSU, and he expects more next year. J.P. Tremblay, Deputy Secretary at the California Department of Veterans Affairs said that on average, they see 30,000 vets come home each year, but he expects more this year.

At the UC Berkeley Veteran Center, Ron William’s door was open, and the flow of student veterans was steady. “If we could multiply Ron Williams by 300 it would be the best thing for us,” said Jose de Lara, 31, who served six years in the U.S. Navy, and is now pursuing philosophy. He said that having a mentor was the most important resource for someone making the transition from the service to school. Other veterans echoed him saying the veteran center where they could find a familiar community was essential to their success.

Unfortunately for De Lara and the other 300 + veterans at UC Berkeley, Williams serves student veterans as part of an unfunded mandate by the state of California, which requires every UC, CSU, and community college in the state of California to provide someone dedicated to retaining and recruiting student veterans. Williams serves this position on top of all his other responsibilities in the Transfer and Re-entry office at UC Berkeley. “It means that no college or university is getting any additional funds from the state to deliver these programs,” he said. Maintaining the program has been a challenge.

Manaois at SFSU agrees. “Staffing is the biggest issue. I am only one full-time staff member with around five student assistants trying to run the Veterans Services Program with no real source of outside funding at this point and no time to be able to look for outside funding to help support activities for our veterans population. We are seeing a growing need for benefits advising since the majority of our new students are transfers from two year colleges and are on the tail end of their benefits,” said Manaois.

So- as troops are set to come home from the Middle East this summer, and the unfunded campus mandates remain the same - how are schools going to accommodate these student veterans? Michael Dakduk, Executive Director of Student Veterans of America, served in the Marine Corps in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 - 2008. When he returned home, he enrolled at University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he started a student veterans chapter. “I took the reins along with a few other leaders. We didn’t turn anyone away - prospective students, returning vets...People would call us asking, ‘How do I get my benefits?’” said Dakduk.

Dakduk and others are worried about colleges being unprepared for new student veterans. “I think that we really have a perfect storm coming up. I’m concerned that institutions won’t be prepared to absorb that impact, to accommodate our needs in class,” said Dani Molina, who served as a radio operator in the U.S. Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and is now doing doctoral research on the veteran population in higher education at UCLA.

California Teachers Bring Education Crisis To Light - Two Ideas Worth Considering

rgee — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:52:43 -0500

This week in California, teachers are claiming a “State of Emergency.” Their goal is to get Governor Jerry Brown to bump up taxes to keep the education budget steady. According to SFGate, hundreds of teachers marched in Sacramento yesterday to protest. Other events planned for this week include “grade-ins” at local malls intended to demonstrate the amount of time teachers spend working outside of the school day.

How to spend money on education is a national hot topic as well. President Barack Obama has pledged to boost the graduation rate and "out-educate" global competitors by meeting and exceeding international standards. So what’s the strategy?

Dave Eggers, author and founder of writing program 826 National, points out in an op-ed for the New York Times that our response to an education crisis is drastically different than our response to a defense crisis. “When we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, ‘It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!’” he writes.

Instead, we blame the planners, strategists, and the secretary of defense. However, the trend in education is to blame the teachers for poor test scores and cut more money from the education budget.

In Eggers’ opinion, recruitment and fair treatment of teachers is key. Other countries with higher teacher salaries have better results - and are able to recruit their top college graduates into the field of teaching. (Check out an awesome infographic about teacher pay around the world.) BUT - most of all, these other countries trust their teachers. “They are rightly seen as the solution, not the problem,” he writes.

Trusting our teachers, and getting them fair pay, is a mindset shift that Eggers advocates we make. Now for the nitty gritty details of measuring teacher quality. R. Barker Bausell, author of Too Simple To Fail: A Case For Education Change, in a related op-ed says test scores are too unpredictable for judging teachers. “Often, more than half of those teachers identified as the poorest performers one year will be judged average or above average the next,” he writes.

Instead, he suggests we record all instruction, and measure the amount of time that a teacher spends on curriculum and engaging students. Bausell writes that studies have proven the positive correlation between time spent on curriculum and higher test scores. He writes, “The studies found that some teachers were able to deliver as much as 14 more weeks a year of relevant instruction than their less efficient peers.” By recording all instruction, an administrator would not have to wait for test scores to be released to evaluate their teachers’ effectiveness, but could watch the videos of instruction and examine the time spent on curriculum.

Teachers are clamoring for money and attention this week in California. According to these writers, the government has choices to make: 1) whether to put money towards teachers or not, and 2) whether to use traditional measures or come up with new ones.Meanwhile the debate continues - whether teachers are part of the solution or the problem.

Remembering Osama Bin Laden

rgee — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:59:52 -0500

The following was originally broadcast on WABE-FM, Atlanta.

By Kathleen Quillian

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(download mp3)

I was in third grade during the terrorists attacks of September 11th. Since then, I've always been aware of Osama Bin Laden but never frightened by him.

I don't see Bin Laden as a boogie man -- I think of him more as a character, parodied by shows such as South Park and Family Guy.

Bin Laden was not somebody my friends and I feared.

Growing up, news conversations have always revolved around certain key words -- war on terror, weapons of mass destruction, Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. My generation has grown up with terror of one kind or another -- terror of another attack or of losing a loved one in war.

Yet the reason why we went to war in Afghanistan is still a bit unclear to me. I still have questions that are not easy to answer. Why are we sending more troops in? Why can't we send our troops home? Especially now that we have finally found and killed this so-called monster?

I feel like I know what's happening overseas, but I have become numb to it all. It's been going on since I was in third grade, so I know that one man's death isn't going to end it.

Previously on WABE:

* Note To Self: Listen To Mom!

* Life After Dropping Out Of College

* Free Speech To What Extent

An American In Paris: A Different View On Bin Laden's Death

rgee — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:49:03 -0500

By Zachary Valdez

Early Monday morning the news of Osama Bin Laden's death arrived here in Paris, along with the reactions of a rejoicing America -- scenes of celebration in D.C. and New York. But the jubilation in the United States, for American university students like me, raises the difficult question of how to react to the news on foreign soil: what is the appropriate response?

Like many Parisians, I learned of Bin Laden's death on the radio Monday morning. And like all Americans, the remainder of the day was filled with bizarre moments of disbelief. After a final exam where our professor made no mention of this news, I met with other American students to mull over the events. However, instead of a reaction to the death of Bin Laden, we were reacting to those initial images captured in D.C. and New York.

One student even described her shock seeing video of baseball fans who burst into chanting "U-S-A!" at a game Sunday, presumably after hearing the president's address. Another student mused about how he would have imagined his response to be much stronger when this day, the death of Bin Laden, finally came. Instead, he feels that any celebration is almost certainly in vain, since there will undoubtedly be a new head to Al Qaeda.

In fact, if the American students in Paris are not celebrating, it is perhaps because we are a world away from the US, unsure of how to react with our anchors back home -- the people we spoke to, the media we consulted -- now temporarily absent.

Maybe for us it is still too early to understand the events of May 1st, 2011, just as it was in the days immediately following September 11th, 2001. May 2nd, though, was simply another spring day in the capital city.

Similarly, there is no visible celebration here either, and even at the popular restaurant Breakfast in America, run by ex-patriots, there is an avoidance of any overzealous campaign on their posted menu (no Osama burgers found here).

Regardless, one can still find that old French spirit of American criticism as of today. As a Bin Laden calling from beyond the grave joked on the radio this morning, the Americans deny global warming, and they don't bother to recycle, so what other option did they have than to dump me into the ocean? Bin Laden added, they won't keep me from converting some fish while I'm down there, the show hosts laughed, heartily.

Young People Speak: Was Osama Bin Laden This Generation's Boogie Man?

rgee — Tue, 03 May 2011 12:58:51 -0500

For young people who were in elementary school on 9-11, they've grown up hearing about Osama Bin Laden and came of age during the War on Terror. Was he their generation's boogie man? Youth Radio reached out to young adults in three cities to find out.

I'm Tajah Jones in Oakland, California.

When I first think of a villain I think of the joker, not Osama Bin Laden.

Over the last decade, which is more than half of my life, Bin Laden was the face of terrorism. But Bin Laden and the war seemed distant from my everyday life. What affected me was the racial prejudice against Muslims and people of color following the September 11th attacks.

I remember when Barack Obama was running for president. There was a poster of Obama with a long beard and a turban. Beneath the image it read, “Obama Bin Laden.” The image shocked me as extreme propaganda.

This really struck me when I visited my Muslim cousin in D.C. -- 6 years after 9/11. We went through airport security and my cousin, wearing a hijab, was unnecessarily questioned. As if simply being Muslim made her dangerous – a terrorist. Until then, I never associated being an American Muslim with Bin Laden. They seemed like two different things. People confuse Bin Laden’s actions with ordinary Muslims when they shouldn’t.

I've made racial and cultural assumptions myself, but being on the other end of it makes me stop and think.

I know he’s supposed to be the scariest man of our time, or the face of evil, but Osama Bin Laden didn’t scare me. The people who don’t question what they hear-- they scare me.

***

I'm Kathleen Quillian in Atlanta, Georgia.

I was in third grade during the terrorists attacks of September 11th. Since then, I've always been aware of Osama Bin Laden but never frightened by him.

I don't see Bin Laden as a boogie man -- I think of him more as a character, parodied by shows such as South Park and Family Guy. And I am not saying that Bin Laden is not a serious subject, but this person was not somebody my friends and I feared.

Growing up, news conversations have always revolved around certain key words -- war on terror, weapons of mass destruction, Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. My generation has grown up with terror of one kind or another -- terror of another attack or of losing a loved one in war.

Yet the reason why we went to war in Afghanistan is still a bit unclear to me. I still have questions that are not easy to answer. Why are we sending more troops in? Why can't we send our troops home? Especially now that we have finally found and killed this so-called monster?

I feel like I know what's happening overseas, but I have become numb to all of it. The conflicts are never ending. So I've learned to cope with them. For my generation, the war on terror plays a part in our everyday lives...nonstop in our schools. It's been going on since I was in third grade, so I know that one man's death isn't going to end it.

***

I'm Jeany Lee in New York City.

I woke up with a smirk on my face when I found out Osama Bin Laden was murdered execution style in Pakistan. The first thought that popped in my head was, “Serves him right for traumatizing me when I was a teenager...”

Perhaps that thought was a bit selfish, considering some of my friends had family who died in the World Trade Center. The trauma I experienced that day, and months after that, seems like nothing compared to what the families and friends of these victims went through.

Before 9-11-01, I lived a charmed life in Tribeca. My favorite thing to do with my dad was eating dinner at Windows on the World Restaurant as a kid. Aerial views of the city from the 100th or so floor made Manhattan look like a dollhouse with yellow hot wheels cars. God, I miss that view terribly.

After 9-11, We couldn't go back to our apartment for months. I was in constant anxiety that year wondering, “When will I go home? Do we have a home? Is my stuff okay? I hope my clothes aren’t chemically toxic..” Downtown Manhattan was my home, and I so badly wanted to return. Eventually, we did move back into our old apartment in May of 2002 to find our possessions under a mountain of toxic dust. My mother arranged for our apartment to be fumigated, and when we moved back in, we had to get new towels, rugs, kitchen appliances.

Through the years, I hated Osama Bin laden. I hated that his stupid actions disrupted my life and gave me some of the worst anxiety I ever experienced at that time. Like any teenager, I wished him dead because he made that year for me a living hell.

After I returned to Tribeca, I eventually resumed my normal day- to - day life with my family and blocked out all those traumatic feelings I experienced that year. I try not to think about 9-11 -- getting in depth with it floods everything back like a freight train that is ready to retard my mindset.

Hearing about bin Laden’s death does give me a bit of solace. However, it does not wipe away all the bad feelings I remember from that time, and nor does it bring back any of the victims that perished that day. As far as I am concerned, Osama got what was coming to him.

***

President Obama Challenges Public Schools

denise — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:50:04 -0600

President Obama has made it clear over and over again that education is extremely important to him, so it is not a surprise that he’s challenging public schools in his 2011 Commencement Challenge to demonstrate how their school best prepares their students for college and a career.

This friendly challenge consists of submitting essay questions and statistical information that shows, “how schools are promoting college and career readiness for all students while establishing a culture of student success and academic excellence.”

Schools need to submitt their applications by March 11 at 11:59 pm EST.

White House On Dads: Children Need Presence Not Perfection

noah — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:48:11 -0500

Amid a news cycle dominated by the Gulf Oil spill and the President's response efforts, the White House is promoting a different advocacy effort this week.

“Children don’t need people to be perfect, they need people to be present,” said Michael Strautmanis, Chief of Staff to White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett. Youth Radio’s Pendarvis Harshaw spoke to Strautmanis about the administration’s new effort, launched yesterday, to connect fathers with their children and promote strong families.

Listen to Youth Radio’s interview with Michael Strautmanis about The President's Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative.

(download mp3)

Previously on Youth Radio:

Full Transcript and Complete Audio Interview after the jump...

Click here to listen to the complete audio interview:

(download mp3)

From Youth Radio, I’m Pendarvis Harshaw. Today, I’m on the phone with Michael Strautmanis. He’s calling from the White House, where he’s the Chief of Staff to Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, and we’re talking about The White House’s new Fatherhood Initiative.

Harshaw: Can you tell us the goals of the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse, and what made this a priority for the administration right now?

Strautmanis: It is a difficult time to be a father for some in this country. It’s easy to become a father, but it’s not always easy to live up to the responsibilities of fatherhood, even in good times, and in difficult economic times like we’re dealing with right now, it can be even more of a challenge. The President has spoken about the importance of fatherhood, he’s written about the importance of fatherhood, and we wanted to take this Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative, and really launch the next stage of this important program.

So we’re going to reach out to communities and individuals across the country. People can go to fatherhood.gov, our website, receive newsletters featuring articles, tips, and resources from leaders in the fatherhood and family fields, and organizations that want to establish fatherhood programs can get information about model programs.

We think fathers participating in their children’s lives, it helps their children in school, it helps their children in their neighborhoods, it helps their children as they grow and develop into responsible adults. We’ve seen that the outcomes are better for children, families, and our community when fathers are involved in their children’s lives, so it’s an important issue for everybody.

Harshaw: I’m wondering, was there any particular tipping point that caused this Initiative to come into fruition?

Strautmanis: It’s something that’s been important to the President for some time. I’ve known him for years, and this issue has always been important to him. He’s spoken about this issue for the last several years. On Father's Day, he’s given a speech about this important issue. He spoke about it last year on Father's Day at The White House, he gave a speech about the importance of fatherhood and healthy families. He went to a nonprofit in Washington DC that’s focused on helping young people and working with them, and he hosted a barbeque with prominent Americans and young people from inside Washington DC and surrounding neighborhoods to talk about this.

Then we went across the country. We went to Oakland California, where the Commerce Secretary talked about fatherhood and the workplace. Manchester, New Hampshire, Secretary Arne Duncan talked about the role of fathers and education. Atlanta, Georgia, where the Attorney General spoke about fatherhood and the criminal justice system. Chicago, Illinois, where we dealt with fathers and healthcare. And Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where the Commanding General there and Secretary of the V.A. Eric Shinseki spoke about fatherhood and military families and veterans. So we’ve had this conversation across the country, and the President wanted to take this next step to launch this initiative and partner with these important community-based organizations across the country.

Harshaw: What audience is this campaign targeting? Is there a specific demographic--is it middle class, working class, or is it all-inclusive initiative?

Strautmanis: The President has said it doesn’t matter who you are, what your income level is, this is an issue we all need to focus on. There are plenty of middle class fathers, maybe they’re spending a little too much time watching Sports Center at home instead of reading to their children. And there are other fathers who are working several jobs, maybe they’re living with their children, maybe they’re not, from all different levels of income and background who-- we want to help them engage with their families and with their children.

So this is an issue that touches everybody. We have great partnerships with women and women’s organizations who’ve reached out to us. We’re encouraging mentoring. I actually lead a mentoring program for young people here at the White House. And so we really think that when you’re talking about participating in the lives of young people, these aren’t women’s issues--childcare and work-family balance--these are issues that everybody has to deal with, fathers as well. We all need to step up and do what we can to participate in the lives of these children.

Harshaw: Can you explain how this Initiative will work and how will we know that it’s working? How will we weigh the results?

Strautmanis: We’ll know that it’s working in small ways in individual lives across the country. But there are going to be important things as well. We are proposing a Fund for Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Innovation, a five hundred million dollar fund to advance responsible fatherhood, healthy marriages and family self-sufficiency. So we want to see comprehensive strategies to address these issues. We want to make sure there are improved outcomes for families focused on them. Are children participating in school? Are they staying in school and not dropping out? In the families that are struggling the most, are these families able to move towards self-sufficiency? Are these families able to find jobs and sustain employment? These children—are less of them involved in the child welfare system? So these are important measures that will have an impact yes on the individual children, on the individual families, but they’ll have an impact in the communities, in the neighborhood. They’ll be one more effort in our comprehensive work to improve our communities. I’m really glad that you all are focused on this. This is important to the President. And we all are looking for an opportunity to step up and do more.

Harshaw: One more lingering question: can you identify the most deep-rooted cause for the prevalence of absent fathers in our country?

Strautmanis: Boy, that’s a question you’d get a lot of debate on. Everybody from the Fatherhood Leadership Group to the National Parent Teachers Associations, everyone else working on the ground has different reasons why they say this is an issue. But the bottom line is it’s one we need to address.

So root causes for these issues are there, they’re prevalent, and you’ll get different opinions on them. What we want to do is, we want to talk with those community-based organizations. We’ve already gone out and had this conversation. We’ve asked them what they need, what it is we can do to help address this issue. And we’ve heard. We’re establishing fathering courts, to help fathers who are leaving the criminal justice system and connect them immediately through the court system to employment and services. We’ve heard, why don’t you just help us find ways that everyone can work together and get this information out to the community? So we’ve launched our website, fatherhood.gov. How can we get different agencies and the Federal Government to work together? So we’ve established an inter-agency coordinating group, to make sure the different agencies are working together in the local community to address these issues.

But at the end of the day, government can only do so much. At the end of the day it’s got to be that individual father deciding to go to that Parent-Teacher conference. Or turning off that second loop of Sports Center and reading to their child. Or deciding that they’re going to be the one to walk the child to school today and have that one conversation or that moment, that time to connect. The President does that. He wanted to show the country how important he thought this is. He’s experienced in his own life what it’s like not to have a father present. He’s also experienced how to juggle the demands of a busy job with the demands of the most important job he has, and that is to be a father to those daughters. I have three children myself, and this is an issue that we all try to do better on and work hard to be our best. So I think working together, we want to move the ball forward here and help improve the lives of these children.

Harshaw: Is there anything else you’d like to put forward?

Strautmanis: I think that the most important issue is that, the children don’t need people to be perfect. They need people to be present. So between fathers, mothers, adults, we can look around and see what we can do to participate in their lives. It makes a real impact. And I think it’ll make a real impact in ways we can measure and in ways we can’t. So everybody out there go to fatherhood.gov, and I appreciate your taking the time to talk to me about this issue.

Harshaw: I appreciate your taking the time out of your busy schedule, both your busy professional schedule, and your busy father schedule. And happy belated Father's Day, too.

That’s Michael Strautmanis, Chief of Staff to White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, calling from the White House. His interview with Pendarvis Harshaw was produced by Youth Radio. Also distributed by WAMU's Youth Voices, in partnership with the Latin American Youth Center and Youth Radio.

Are the Undocumented Risking It All For A Little Known March?

denise — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:01:37 -0500

An estimated 900 buses from 28 states are fueling up in advance of Sunday’s immigration reform march in Washington DC. March For America organizers expect to surpass their goal of 50,000 attendees, but with health care reform stealing headlines, Youth Radio’s Denise Tejada asked Shuya Ohno, Deputy Communications Director for the coalition of march organizers, if there’s any chance they’ll achieve their bigger goal – getting immigration reform on the 2010 legislative calendar.

Denise Tejada: One of the things that makes the March For America unique is that so many immigrants are outing themselves as illegal. Why are so many young people doing that when it puts their futures at risk?

Shuya Ohno: Their futures have already been at risk. Many of them have known only this country; they don’t even remember having been born in another country. I meet young people all the time who were brought here as infants, one year old, two years old. So they grew up here and feel completely American, this is the only country know, the only culture they know. And yet because they don’t have that number, that social security number – just a few digits – they’ve had to live their whole lives in fear… Their coming out has been an incredibly powerful and empowering experience, even though you’re right that they are putting themselves at risk of being deported to a country that they’ve never known.

More after the jump

DT: How much of immigration reform is about education?

SO: Education is part of opportunity that I think every American disserves. Education is absolutely the key to economic stability and well being, not just for the individual, but for the community and for the country as a whole. And so discrimination at that educational level is something that we really need to address, and immigration reform will do that for so many thousands and thousands of these youth who are trapped by this immigration system. They don’t have access to higher education in so many ways.

DT: With healthcare legislation moving forward in the house this weekend, are you worried that the march in D.C. won’t receive the coverage it deserves?

SO: It would be nice to get more coverage… But what’s important for us, and I say this even though I’m the Deputy Director of Communications, is that this is not just a media event. While I know the importance of media, this event is for the people who are showing up. This event is for all the communities out there who are having prayer circles, who are having vigils. And this event is also for the elected officials to take notice, and it’s great actually that Congress will to be debating and voting (that day), because Congress is going to actually be at the Capitol and we’re going to march right by them as they’re coming out.

DT: Is the reason you’re pushing this forward now, because you think there’s political will to pass an immigration reform bill?

SO: Yes absolutely. The president and leadership in the House and the Senate had said they would try to get to immigration reform in the first year (of Barack Obama’s presidency), and the first year has come and gone…

DT: Is that why you’re not waiting until May 1st to take action?

SO: That’s right, now is the time. And after we announced the march the president actually sat down with some of our leaders and advocates at The White House, face to face, and discussed what really needs to happen. And on that very same day, last week, the president met with Senators Graham and Schumer from the Republican and Democratic side to sit down and figure out how to get this done for the American people.

DT: What are some of the things that the president said, and what are some of the actions that he’s willing to take?

SO: It was actually a very tense argument from what I understand, but it was actually a very productive one. And I think the events yesterday show just how productive that was. Just yesterday Senators Schumer and Graham co-wrote and published an editorial in the Washington Post, outlining a framework for immigration reform legislation… Only one hour after that article appeared, The White House issued a public statement in support of this bipartisan effort.

DT: Are you hoping to change people’s minds?

SO: Well I think peoples minds have been changing over these years. I think everybody is starting to really understand that these problems need to be solved and that they are solvable. We can’t keep burying our heads in the sand. The problems only get worse when we do that. Immigration is just such a problem where we have to face it. We have to figure out the best way to solve these problems. We know that the laws today aren’t working right, we know that they need to be fixed, and I think it just takes understanding and courage to say okay, let’s fix it.

Previously: