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Baptists Announce Education Initiative

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Jun 28, 2009 7:27 pm US/Central

Baptists Announce Education Initiative

DALLAS (AP) ― Texas Baptists announced an initiative on Sunday that church leaders hope will help more Hispanics bridge the education gap.

About 5,500 churches affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas are being invited to partner with the denomination to offer online GED programs for free. Particular emphasis is being placed on more than 1,100 Hispanic congregations, and the denomination is hoping to recruit a volunteer in each church to serve as academic director.

"Our goal is to reduce the number of high school dropouts, period. Anybody who's dropping out — that's our goal," said Gus Reyes, a denomination official who worked on the initiative.

The initiative involves the combined efforts of the denomination and the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas.

The program is the culmination of a study by Texas Baptists. The report cited U.S. Census figures that show more than 31 percent of Hispanic adults 25 years or older in Texas received less than a ninth-grade education. About 51 percent of Texas Hispanics do not have a high school diploma.

"We know there are GED centers around Texas. We want to bring those centers to the people," said Suzii Paynter, director of the Christian Life Commission, the denomination's public policy arm.

Denominational officials said the program is only costing them about $650 per participating church and will be open to participants regardless of religious affiliation.

The Dallas-based Baptist General Convention of Texas has about 2.3 million members.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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