Education Of Mexicans In 1960's

The 1974 case of Lau v. Nichols, was the turning point in which the Supreme Court ruled that the school district had the duty of meeting linguistic needs of children, if not, it deprived the children of equal protection under The Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was the precedent for many Mexican students, and it led to the expansion of bilingual education classrooms. Even though this helped many schools, many other schools in Texas and California still enforced the "No Spanish rule." Because of strong support from those that wanted to enforce the laws for bilingual education, The National Association of Bilingual Educators (NABE) and The California Association of Bilingual Educators (CABE) were formed. .
             Many schools that were predominantly made up of Mexican Americans, as well as African American were funded less than the Anglo schools of other areas. In Texas in 1970, Mexican American schools only received 3/5 of the Federal appropriations that Euro American schools were receiving. "In Bexar County, a poor "Chicano district," with five times less property value than the Euro American district, received less state aid per pupil than its wealthier Euro American neighbor." (Acuna, 413) The Chicanos realized that without educational equality, access to higher education was impossible. So once again, as in other instances, the people took it to the courts. This time there was more than one case involved in gaining progress. In 1968, the first case was Serrano v. Priest where John Serrano Jr. sued the California state treasurer on the grounds that his son received an inferior education in East Los Angeles because of the of the local property taxes financed the local schools. The argument was that the poor districts did not receive as much funds as the wealthier ones and in turn, the students were given the unequal treatment. He was trying to prove that money equaled education. As a result of Serrano taking his case to the Supreme Court, the court ruled in favor of Serrano stating that California's school districts violated the state Constitution's equal protection clause by denying equal access to education.