Latinos make up half of K-12 public school students in Arizona
Oct 1, 2018, 3:15 PM
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
PHOENIX — Hispanic students now make up a big portion of the student population in Arizona’s K-12 public schools.
About half of public school students in Arizona are Hispanic, according to the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 2018 “DATOS: The State of Arizona’s Hispanic Market” report.
“This shows our future workforce is in that school system, and we need to be able to provide a good quality education to prepare them for the workforce,” said Monica Villalobos, vice president of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Villalobos added having an educated workforce will ensure Arizona is “able to provide companies with the talent pool they need to come here.”
According to the report, as the number of Latino students in K-12 public schools has exploded, so has the number of Latinos graduating from high school. However, they’re still falling behind their non-Hispanic white peers when it comes to pursuing higher education.
Nearly 21 percent of Latino students in Arizona were enrolled in a public four-year college in 2016, compared to 57 percent of non-Hispanic white students.
More than 28 percent of Latino students were also enrolled in a public two-year college that same year, compared to nearly 48 percent of non-Hispanic white students.
The DATOS report highlighted some of efforts being done to help more Latino students go to college and graduate.
The AGUILA Youth Leadership Institute is one of the programs highlighted in the report for their work to get Latino students prepared for the rigors of higher education. The program also teachers students about civic engagement, community leadership and self-esteem.
“We work to serve the students in a way that they understand how they can really make a difference, not just in their own lives but in the community,” said Rosemary Ybarra-Hernandez, who created the program in 2004.
