Academic Liftoff

Learn from an experienced educator whose family has achieved academically against all odds for generations, who has turned around bad schools, proven steps to help your child succeed

This book is for the millions of parents of all races who are not born into the silver spoon crowd; who know enough to want their child to earn more to have a better life than they did, who seek practical advice regarding how to get academic and economic liftoff for their children. The author, David M. Ramirez, J.D. has the credentials and the real life experience to give no baloney “road tested” “no fluff” expert advice on this subject that really works. The author just finished [2016-2017) turning around the adult prison school at Folsom State Prison which was truly floundering, using these methods in motivating the staff and students so that the students earned the most certificates and diplomas out of all the schools in the prison education system in California. This turnaround was done with a student population that had failed at public school and most of whom suffered from arrested emotional development, arguably the toughest student population in the world. OVERVIEW Today’s stark reality is what you earn is based on what you learn. Every American faces increasingly brutal, unforgiving, unrelenting competition for jobs from millions of job seekers at home, and millions more in China and India. Globalization is heartless and spreading, as we are reminded each time we call many big companies for customer service. Seven million Chinese earn a B.A. yearly, 1.5 million Indians earn an Engineering degree each year. As long as outsourcing by importing workers via visa programs (for example H1B visas) is possible, increasing global competition for many jobs is a harsh and growing reality. U.S. statistics show a college degree makes a real difference in hard cash. The U.S. Department of Education in its 2011 report “The College Payoff, Education Occupation and Lifetime Earnings,” concluded that the average lifetime earnings of an American Bachelor’s degree holder was 84% higher than those with a high school diploma. However, in spite of this clear advantage in income for college graduates, by age 27, 72% of the U.S. population failed to earn a bachelor’s degree. (U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014 longitudinal study.) Unfortunately Americans have failed to learn what Woody Guthrie observed in his anthem of the Great Depression: “It may be the land of the brave and the home of the free, but it don’t mean much if you ain’t got the Do Re Mi.” Do Re Mi was a 1930’s expression for dough or money. Roy Rodgers the cowboy actor and great businessman perhaps said it better: “They say money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes a nice down payment.” A college degree can help get that down payment. There are methods to increase the odds of earning a college degree, including from some of the elite schools, even if you are in an unfavorable or even a hostile environment. It is a fact that getting accepted at an elite private or public school is not easy. The overall acceptance rate for all applicants to the best colleges regardless of race in 2015 was, Stanford, 5.1%, Harvard, 6%, Yale, 6.3 %, U.C. Berkeley, 16%. (U.S. News and World Report Education edition, 2015). There are methods to increase the odds of earning a college degree, and " Academic Liftoff” will show how to vastly increase the odds your child will earn a bachelor’s degree, even if you were not born with a silver spoon in your mouth. The methods in this book are based on lessons learned from the multi-generational experience and techniques practiced from 1906 to today, from a Mexican American family, who consistently produced college graduates each generation, in the face of serious challenges, including virulent racism, The Great Depression, and The Great Recession. These techniques apply to everyone, regardless of race whose goal is to see their child graduate from college. The fact that they worked across generations proves their worth and effectiveness.