EDITORIAL: Two steps to change Texas for better

Posted: 4/13/06

EDITORIAL:
Two steps to change Texas for better

We have seen the future, and it is brown.

State Demographer Steve Murdock recently consulted Baptist General Convention of Texas institutional presidents. He sketched a paint-by-the-numbers portrait of Texas Today and Texas Tomorrow. Not too long ago, our state achieved a nonmajority culture; Anglos now comprise less than 50 percent of the population, and no ethnic group holds a majority. Eventually, however, Hispanics will become the majority. With the pace of Hispanic growth rapid but uneven, statisticians such as Murdock can’t predict exactly when that moment will occur, but they seem to keep moving the date nearer and nearer.

Even as Murdock spoke to Texas Baptist leaders about our population shift, Congress debated federal laws that regulate immigration, a key force driving demographic change. We’ve discussed immigration reform in this space before. Frankly, Texas Baptists—like the rest of the country—don’t agree on this vital issue. But we can pray for consensus on at least two points: People of faith, particularly working through their churches, never should face prosecution for ministering to hurting and needy people, even illegal immigrants. And shame on us if we continue to allow people to die in the backs of tractor-trailers.

For now, let’s turn our attention to key questions the BGCT leaders pondered with Murdock: What can we as Christians do to improve the living conditions of Texas’ burgeoning Hispanic population? And what can we do to improve the quality of life in Texas for the coming generations? The most pervasive and powerful answer to both questions is simple to say and difficult to do: Educate Hispanic children and young people.

Survey after survey states the same message: More than any other factor, education impacts an individual’s—and family’s—economic future. In Texas today, 60 percent of Hispanic students drop out before graduating from high school. That pace is 20 points worse than the national average. Of course, this overwhelming human need is a major moral concern that deserves the attention and effort of compassionate Christians throughout the state. And if you’re tempted to think this is not your problem, that it is an isolated challenge for our Hispanic community, consider this: Without a trained workforce (and remember, Hispanics as the majority will be the dominant pool of that workforce), Texas will fail to attract business and industry. So, unless we educate the coming generations of Hispanic Texans, our state will become an economic backwater, and all our children and grandchildren, no matter their race or ethnicity, will suffer the consequences.

The BGCT already has created the Hispanic Education Task Force to develop solutions to this enormous challenge. Please place this group on your prayer list, asking God to give the members creativity, compassion and courage. As they work, here are two steps they need to consider and challenges Texas Baptists should embrace:

• Let’s lower the Hispanic dropout rate by at least 2 percentage points a year for at least 10 years.

Albert Reyes, president of the Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, acknowledged that while we can’t reach every Hispanic student in the state, we can reach all who attend our 1,200 Hispanic Baptist churches. “What if we declared, ‘We refuse to let our students drop out of school’?” Reyes asked. Think of the impact on those students and their families, an impact that will last for generations. And think of the impact on our churches and their communities if they become known as the churches that love children so much they sacrifice to ensure those children’s futures.

Of course, the Hispanic churches can’t do this by themselves, nor should they. Every Hispanic congregation should be paired with at least two other Texas Baptist churches who provide trained volunteers, who would tutor students, teach English as a Second Language to their parents, and mentor parents and children alike about the value of education and how to navigate the Texas educational system.

• Let’s put serious money into making an education at our nine BGCT universities accessible to Hispanic young people.

With the possible exception of church-starting, it’s hard to imagine an initiative that would impact our state more profoundly than ensuring Christ-centered higher education for a rising generation of Hispanic Baptists. Their leadership will strengthen their families, their churches (including many that now are Anglo) and our state.

The dividends of both initiatives will pay off immediately and last until Christ returns.

—Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.