LOS ANGELES
Sen. Barack Obama promised to improve the education system Saturday when he brought his presidential campaign to the East Los Angeles school immortalized in the 1988 movie “Stand and Deliver.”
The Democrat spoke to about 200 students, teachers and others at Garfield High School, one of the social and cultural touchstones of the city’s largely Hispanic, working-class East Side.
Obama stressed the importance of early childhood education and called for more money for schools, adding that educating students should be the work of the entire community.
“It’s time to stand up and deliver for America’s urban poor,” Obama said.
He expressed concern about high dropout rates among Latinos and blacks, saying the U.S. needs educated workers to keep its economy strong.
If “black and brown students are dropping out of school … our work force is not going to be competitive in the world,” he said.
