Latino voters and high school reform

The Alliance for Excellent Education released an opinion survey today on public high schools in America. The message was pretty clear: people want high schools to improve. Some excerpts:

The findings are conclusive: the American public sees problems with high schools and they overwhelmingly want governors, members of Congress, and the President to pay more attention to them. In fact, for the first time, the public feels more urgency to improve high schools than elementary education.

"This poll is important," Wise said, "because it clearly states that for the first time, Americans believe that high schools should be a top priority for our federal and state officials, as well as for business and community leaders. The poll also shows that simply improving grade school is not enough; the commitment must be made and maintained at every level."

Among other findings, the National Council of La Raza reports, is the very strong support among Latinos nationwide for public school reform. Over 80 percent of Latinos thought there was an urgent need to improve high schools and that President Bush and Congress weren't paying enough attention to the matter. Any wonder why Hillary Clinton gave this speech to an enthusiatic Latino audience in July?