Cast members from the 1988 film Stand and Deliver are raising money to help cover medical costs for Jaime Escalante, the beloved high school math teacher in the film, who is battling cancer.

Edward James Olmos, who played Escalante in the movie about a barrio teacher in Los Angeles who created a nationally acclaimed calculus program, is behind the fundraising effort. "The genius that he awakened in the 'unteachable' commanded the attention of the entire world," Olmos says on his website.

He said 79-year-old Escalante has run out of money to pay his medical bills.

"I have been moved to tears to hear of the circumstances of this great man and am calling for a last National Understanding of his selfless contributions to making a difference in this world," Olmos writes.

Escalante, who was born in Bolivia, taught at Garfield High School in Los Angeles in the 1960s where he turned groups of down-and-out inner city kids into calculus champs.

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Posted by Lawren at March 4, 2010 08:54 AM | Trackbacks (0)