A Message from
Our Chairman

A Message from LEAF Chairman, Ed Alvarez

At LEAF we believe that every student is entitled to an equal opportunity to succeed in higher education and to pursue a career of their choice in order to obtain social and economic mobility. We consider advocating for educational equity and systemic change to be a critical part of our mission. We also believe that advocacy must be parent and family-centered. It is for this reason that we invest in our LEAF Leader families and provide the information they need to lead this educational equity effort.  Our k-12 schools in East San Jose are entitled to funding that equates with that received by other school districts in Silicon Valley, but our parents must hold their schools accountable for how existing funds are spent to ensure access, equity, and accountability for their students.

 To support the effort to obtain increased funding for our schools, 3 years ago we founded, in partnership with the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, the Eastside Education Initiative.  The work of the Initiative is based on addressing the structural deficiency in the funding of schools that results in unequal funding based on the value of one’s home. We will advocate at all levels, for fair and equal funding for our schools. 

We also believe that for the vast majority of low-income students, community college can lead to success and we intend to advocate for efforts to increase community college enrollment. Students must be given the opportunity to pursue a meaningful career with access to all meaningful information. To support this effort, we  launched the LEAF Career Exploration and Discovery program. This program will also be family-centered so that regardless of where a student is in high school or college, a family will have sufficient information to guide selected career pathways.

Join us by showing your support as we continue to advocate for educational equity in East San Jose.

Respectfully,

Ed Alvarez
Chairman
Latino Education Advancement Foundation