1	In the News From politics to art, the headlines of Hispanidad. read more...
2	Up Front Columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr., explores both sides of the affirmative action debate, read more...
3	Up Front Dr. Eduardo Padrón calls for a dialogue on healthcare, housing and education. read more...

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Reclaiming Our Sense OF Possibility With a critical gap in the middle, urban America risks becoming a hollow two-tiered society.

In the midst of too many fiscal crises, legislative skirmishes and facility needs, meeting with students always lifts me above the fray. They are the built-in reminder of why all those battles are worth fighting. But a recent conversation with students reminded me just how important it is to win these battles.
“Dr. Padrón, I have to drop out of school. My mom is ill and we don’t have insurance to pay the bills. You always tell us that going to college is essential. Isn’t medical care just as important?”
What could I say? The answer is obvious but the reality is so manifestly contrary to be embarrassing—and heartbreaking in this and too many cases. So many college students live on the edge—one medical emergency, lost job or increase in rent from losing their financial balance. But we need these people to succeed, desperately need to realize their potential in our workforce and communities, but as a society we seem bent on shooting ourselves in the foot.
At Miami Dade College, nearly 60 percent of students are low-income, with 36 percent living below the federal poverty threshold. Students just like them live in Houston, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington and additional cities in every region of the country. They are among the 47 million who cannot afford health insurance. That’s one in six people in this country who risk illness and financial havoc for lack of medical care.
A glint of hope surfaced in California recently when Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed healthcare coverage for the state’s entire population of 36 million people. About 6.5 million Californians lack insurance, including at least a million uninsured illegal immigrants. While Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine are testing universal coverage, most states share
California’s dilemma, with special concern in border states like Florida and Texas, the latter with uninsured residents equaling one-quarter of the population.
Urban institutions like MDC are proud of the boost they provide toward middle-class prosperity. But the middle- class platform itself is crumbling in cities across the country, under the weight of inordinate housing, healthcare and insurance costs. Teachers, public safety and fire personnel, nurses and certainly, the students who will drive the local economy cannot afford the cities they support. With a critical gap in the middle, urban America risks becoming a hollow two-tiered society.
Each of us craves possibility. We may be discouraged by events, but the urge to persist and prosper remains. The framers of the Constitution, quite remarkably, fashioned a system of government in sympathy with the promise of individual lives, a society that aimed to nurture its greatest resource. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was not an accidental phrase.
Today, government’s hand is on the fulcrum between a fast-paced economic system, justly committed to bottom line success, and a democratic society that must be as devoted to equity of opportunity.
Educational opportunity is the essential core of possibility in this country, a doorway to economic viability. But beyond any specific element of the “American Dream,” it is the sense of possibility that asks to be reclaimed. We’re at a crossroads of belief. The constructs that have served as ideals and guiding principles for 200 years need to be felt as realities across a broad economic spectrum.
To that end, let the debates begin. Single-payer system or competition among insurers? Housing investment subsidies or tax breaks? Federal or state support for education? It is high time to ask the questions and find the answers. It is time to rediscover our sense of possibility. I know at least one young lady who is waiting anxiously for us to figure it out.

Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón is president of Miami Dade College, the largest institution of higher education in the nation.