As many may know, the Social Justice Fund for Ventura County (SJFVC) theme for 2017 was Implicit Bias In Education. One of this year’s grantees was Future Leaders of America (FLA) in Oxnard, CA and a primary focus for FLA was to find ways to increase the number of non-English speaking students able to qualify for higher education, primarily California’s CSU and UC systems. They zeroed in on requesting that the Oxnard Union High School District (OUHSD) align the graduation requirements from high school with the A-G requirements necessary for admission to the CSU and UC systems.
FLA took their request to the OUHSD board meeting last week and they were impressive. They turned out in numbers, presented their argument with passion, statistics and stories, convincing the board to align the graduation requirements from high school with the A-G requirements necessary for the CSU and UC systems. This is a big step to improve access to college for non-English speaking students. For more, watch the video of a speech by an FLA youth who is a junior in high school and/or check out more on the FLA Facebook page.
SJFVC was able provide a tiny bit of help as FLA asked us to advocate for them when they presented their request to the OUHSD and we gladly did. SJFVC board member (Micheal Teasdale) conveyed our support in person.
