Without fanfare, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the country's largest constituency-based Hispanic organization, is embarking on a $25 million project to open 50 new Latino charter schools over the next five years. Behind the effort is Anthony Colon, who worked for 20 years in the bureaucracy of the New York City school system before becoming principal of a charter school in Oakland. An article by Jonathan Rauch describes the plan and profiles Nueva Esperanza, a charter school that sprang from, and serves, Philadelphia's Latino community. While some will be uncomfortable with the idea of ethnocentric charter schools, the founders believe that community ownership creates a sense of pride and purpose, and supporters note that what makes these schools so effective is that the people who run them believe their pupils are capable of great achievement. For details, see "Charter Schools: A New Hope for America's Latinos," by Jonathan Rauch, Jewish World Review, October 1, 2001.
