We absolutely wish. If you boil down the challenges facing El Paso, you can boil it down to the following statistics. Of the 65 who do complete high school, only about 20 will complete the recommended high school program. That means about 20 out of 100 are achieving what we consider to be the minimum education attainment levels in order to go on without significant remediation. Students who start at UTEP, about 50 percent take remedial courses.
Local businesses are teaching kids how to read and write, spell, do math.
To me, the biggest concern is that only 20 kids out of 100 are truly prepared, without additional schooling. It is way too small a percentage. If you look at El Paso today, less than 10 percent of our workforce has college degrees. First of all, there are two other goals that came out of the summit. The third goal calls for a communitywide campaign that emphasizes the importance of education.