COUNTY SO-SO FOR LATINOS SCORES AVERAGE C-MINUS IN REPORT ON QUALITY OF LIFE.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County gets barely passing grades in providing quality-of-life services - including health care, housing, education and economic development - for the region's large Latino population, according to a review released Wednesday by United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

In its annual Latino Scorecard, the county received D's in education, economic development and housing, with researchers finding Latinos have the lowest rates of health insurance, highest rates of poverty and lowest per capita incomes, and only 39 percent are homeowners.

Researchers issued a C for health care, and the highest grade the county received - a C-plus - was in public safety, with researchers finding that youth violence and juvenile arrests among Latinos have fallen substantially since 2001.

``If this were your report card, it would be a C-minus or a D-plus,'' said David Hayes-Bautista, lead researcher and executive director of the Center for Study of Latino Health & Culture at the University of California, Los Angeles.

And despite a burgeoning Latino population that accounts for nearly half of the county's population, the scorecard showed little improvement since the first one was issued three years ago.

``There has been some positive movement, but there are still some rather large shortfalls - and some are quite alarming,'' Hayes-Bautista said.

``The report card overall is not that good. If we were kids, our parents would have reprimanded us. We have some work ahead of us.''

The scorecard, authored by researchers at five universities, found that Latinos continue to lag behind the general population in the five areas, while showing improvements in youth violence, some aspects of educational achievement and labor force participation.

For example, the review found a growing number of Latino fourth-graders scoring above the national average in math, reading and language, and Latino men had the highest labor force participation rate at 78 percent - compared with 72 percent of whites, 67 percent of African- Americans and 66 percent of Asians.

Still, community leaders said the findings were troubling.

``This shows we still have huge challenges in the areas of health and housing, some notable progress in public safety as we become the second safest big city in America, and a huge challenge to turn around our educational system,'' said City Council President Eric Garcetti.

``The largest-growing population in the San Fernando Valley is the Latino population. I grew up as a Latino in the Valley myself, and on my block there was maybe at the time two or three other Latinos. Now, it's hard to find any block in the Valley where there aren't quite a few Latinos.''

In 2004, Latinos were 47 percent of the county's population - about 4.6 million out of 9.76 million residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But in the scorecard released Wednesday, researchers found Latinos continue to be the least likely to have health insurance - at 34 percent - and have the highest rate of unhealthy behavior, such as physical inactivity, tobacco use and obesity.

Latinos also are severely underrepresented in local medical schools - just 14 percent of first-year medical students - which partly accounts for a shortage of Spanish-speaking doctors in the county.

In education, the researchers found the graduating Class of 2005 in public high schools countywide had 30,000 fewer Latino students than the number who enrolled in ninth grade, a 40 percent drop.

Also, only 26 percent of Latino high school graduates in 2004 completed the minimum requirements to apply to public universities - compared with 43 percent of whites, 31 percent of African-Americans and 57 percent of Asians.

And while Latinos have a strong work ethic and a thriving entrepreneurial spirit, low rates of high school and college graduations have translated into the lowest per capita income at $12,464 - less than one-third of the $38,001 per capita income of whites.

``It's not that the students are failing. It's that our system is failing,'' said Monica Lozana, publisher and chief executive officer of La Opinion newspaper, who chairs the Latino Scorecard project.

``And we have to recognize that we all have to pull together and work together as a community ... in the areas of health care, education, economic development and housing.''

The exorbitantly high price of housing in the county has locked many Latinos out of homeownership, forcing them to live in low-quality, crowded and expensive apartments.

Although Latinos constitute almost half of the county's population, they received only 25 percent of new home loans in 2003. Those who did get loans were nearly twice as likely as whites to receive loans from higher-cost, subprime lenders.

Latinos also continue to be overrepresented as victims of violent crimes and continue to be underrepresented in law enforcement, accounting for 30 percent of all sworn officers in the Sheriff's Department - a 17 percent disparity from Latinos' proportion in the county population as a whole.

At the conference unveiling the scorecard Wednesday at the University of Southern California, participants offered recommendations on how to improve county conditions for Latinos.

They called for increased public awareness and education about healthy behavior, setting educational achievement standards, advancing business and financial literacy education and supporting public infrastructure improvements, promoting quality affordable housing that is accessible to transit and schools, and hiring and training culturally competent police officers.

Other goals include 100 percent enrollment of children in health insurance programs, increasing the availability and quality of preschool education, and focusing attention on the importance of the earned income tax credit or EITC.

``We want to make sure that everyone has access to the American dream,'' said Janet Murguia, president and chief executive officer of the National Council of La Raza. ``I think Los Angeles can lead the way. We have the opportunity. This is our moment.''

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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SOURCE: United Way of Greater Los Angeles

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