The purpose of the paper is to outline some of the problems and constraints which currently prevent the use of scarce resources to provide effective programs for Mexican-Americans and Indians in the Southwestern United States, and to propose a project designed to reduce bureaucratic constraints; focus is primarily on the preschool and elementary child (on developing programs which will help him negotiate the schools and on charging the schools to meet his needs). In addition, adults are involved in a three-phase program which includes adult basic education, training activities for adults who wish to work as teacher aides, and alternative training activities enabling adults to initiate "cooperatives" for establishing self-directed economic development enterprises of their own. Support activities include specific training for teachers and adults, as well as curriculum development efforts where materials are irrelevant or non-existant. Among the appendixes is a 45-page report titled "Research and Development Needs and Priorities for the Education of the Spanish-Speaking People," by Dr. Atilano A. Valencia in 1970, a Bureau of Research project undertaken by a selected committee for the Southwestern Cooperative Educational Laboratory, Inc. (Author/AJ)