Cisneros speech highlight of annual HEP banquet
By CHRIS BARBEE cbarbee@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Chris Barbee Token Of Appreciation Former San Antonio Mayor and HUD Secretary in the Clinton Administration Henry Cisneros (left) was given a gift bag in appreciation of his being guest speaker at Saturday's Hispanic Education Project Scholarship Banquet. Presenting Cisneros with a hand-carved deer horn pen and pencil set and a shirt as a token of appreciation is Bobby Perez. In background is Juan Arredondo.

Former San Antonio mayor and HUD secretary Henry Cisneros seemed to feel right at home in El Campo Saturday night as main speaker for the 16th Annual Hispanic Education Project Scholarship Banquet.

He said in El Campo he knew his last name would be pronounced correctly, he had good memories from speaking her once before at the Chamber of Commerce banquet, and he was pleased to return to the hometown of the late Master Sgt. Roy P. Benavidez, a Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient.

Cisneros was complimentary of the HEP and its effort to help students get to college. And many things he said a progressive community should be doing ... El Campo is doing.

Henry Cisneros

Cisneros was introduced by Benavidez's son, Noel.

"You are all very fortunate to live in a community that produced someone like Sgt. Roy Benavidez. A national hero. A brave man, not only in his years of military service, but he showed that kind of courage and stamina over a lifetime in giving back to our nation," Cisneros said.

Most of his address concerned the importance of a good education.

"Public education, which goes preschool through grade 12, followed by higher education, whether it be community college or university, followed by graduate school or professional school ... we have a system that basically says it doesn't matter where you start. It doesn't matter how poor you are. It doesn't matter that your parents can't speak English. It doesn't matter that they started without any money. If you have skills, if you have talent, if you work hard, if you come to school and you commit yourself, this country allows you to make anything you want of yourself," Cisneros said.

"We have people emerging from the poorest counties in this country, and they go on to become presidents of universities, doctors and scientists, astronauts and generals, ambassadors and governors. That's why we have this national faith in education. It works for us. It makes us a society in which there are no serious divisions between classes," he said.

"I want to commend you on what you are doing. Very few communities in Texas would have a banquet like this, to raise money, to raise scholarships for Hispanic youth who were not able to access on a large scale the scholarships available to send them to college. They are too valuable a resource to waste. We don't have time. Let's get these kids to college," he said.

Cisneros said education has a double importance to the Hispanic community because the ethnic group is so far behind in so many areas.

"The number of people we graduate from high school is lower, the number who drop out is higher, the number who never make it to college is higher, the number who graduate from college is smaller ... and we have a huge distance to cover.

"It is clear to me that for our community to progress, we are going to have to invest in education. We have to worry about a lot of things, but if you ask me the first priority is the education of our young people or we'll never be able to advance and take care of the other things. If we don't have the talent, if we don't have people making money and moving into the middle class ... if we don't have people preparing for leadership ... that's why we need to invest in education," Cisneros said.

Cisneros said students completing their education is important for many reasons, but mainly, it's important to our country. "We have got to do this for the good of our country," he added, noting that Hispanic growth now and in the future "is stunning."

And there's a lot that needs to be done.

"We've got to have citizens who vote, who pay taxes, who participate. We need to have an investment in P- 16 (preschool through college) because that's what the country requires today. It works like this: low skills, low wages; high skills, high wages. If not, we don't get the skills, and we don't get the wages and we don't advance the middle class.

"We have to build facilities, which means we have to pass the bond issues. We've got to worry about our teachers and their salaries, and expect of our teachers self improvement ... to use their summers to perfect their skills.

"I know a lot of people in our society who work hard, but I don't know anyone who works harder than a classroom teacher, who shows up at 7 something in the morning, who doesn't have time to say, 'I didn't prepare my lesson plan.' Then when it's time for a break someone comes up and says they lost their lunch or homework or something, so their time is taken. They work until the end of the day then go home to prepare for the next day. It's hard, hard work and we need to pay more attention to our teachers," said.

Cisneros also said school board members need to advance the quality of education.

"School boards are not stepping stones to something else. School boards are not political playgrounds. School boards are not a place for people to act out their fights as we have seen in many communities ... they've forgotten completely that the purpose is to improve the schools."

He also said communities need a higher level of parental involvement, which, he said, means turning off the television and making sure children do their homework and get ready for school.