The Situation

The Arizona mindset is typically characterized by a philosophy of small town government, minimal taxation, maintenance of the status quo, and pro-business. As a result, state responsibilities, such as education, are minimally supported. The data reported herein verifies the philosophy and approach that over time has produced a state of educational neglect and deficiencies. Other recently issued reports indirectly have concluded that the state's role has produced an educational situation that needs more and better assistance. One such recent report is the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education Report (2000), which indicates that the state must do much more to improve the education of all students, if more students are to participate in higher education. Another is the Morrison Institute Report (2001), which identifies the importance of improving the education of the state's Latino youth. Its editors conclude that to continue to do a poor job of educating this growing population is to harm the state's future economic security.

Population Growth

Nationally, by the year 2004, Latinos will surpass the African American population and become the largest group of color in the United States. Further, Latinos now make up 45 percent of the general population of 11 Western states, including Alaska and Hawaii.

The Census 2000 Count reports that Arizona is a growth state. As a result of these latest data collected, Arizona has increased enough in population that two additional congressional seats will be available in the next congressional election.

The general population of Arizona has increased from 3,665,228 in 1990 to 5,130,632 million in 2000. Of this 5.1 million increase, 1.3 million are classified as Hispanic. Twenty-five percent, or one in four Arizonans, are of Latino decent with the greatest number and percent of the Latino population being of Mexican ancestry. Arizona Latinos soared upward from 688,338 in 1990 to 1.3 million for an 88 percent increase, the most of any subgroup in the state.

When we examine the ages of the population, we find that children and youth of color make up the majority of school-age children and within the children of color, Hispanic youth are the majority.

Table 1

K - 12 Student Population

Table 2

Community College Student Enrollments

Table 3

Fourth Year IHE Enrollment

The Social/Economic/Political Dynamics

The Economic Downturn

As of the last economic quarter of 2001, Arizona, like most of the country, is forecasting a reduced state budget due to a failing economy. The state is planning to cut back on state budget allocations. The significance of reduced state support for education is that students in poor K-12 school districts will fall further behind in getting both adequate resources and any resources to close the funding inequity gap that exists between rich and poor school districts. Since most Latino children reside in poor tax yield school districts, they will likely be disadvantaged the most.

The governor and some legislators want to protect the education allocation from any budget cuts. But even if the state's education budget is not reduced, because the state budget will not be increased, schools will suffer since the need will grow larger while funding remains the same. That is, the discrepancy gap between school needs and the lack of state funding in the past widens. Of course, the resource problem is compounded because the Latino population is growing, needs are becoming more pressing, and at a time when state allocations are decreasing.

Social Attitude: Voter Regression

Following the 1999 California Unz referendum, Proposition 203, an anti-bilingual education issue, appeared on the Arizona November 2000 state ballot and was passed by a large majority. Hence, the Arizona State Department of Education is in the process of developing clarification answers for local school districts about closing out their bilingual education programs. Parents of non- or limited English speaking children can request that their sons or daughters be placed in a bilingual education program, but it is yet unclear whether a school is required to provide such instruction.

Ironically, in a state that prides itself as a "choice state," with the most charter schools and strong political support for vouchers, the consequences are that many Latino children will not have the choice to learn how to read, write, and compute in English with a bilingual teacher, who gives instruction, direction, and clarification in two languages. Past experience teaches us that students who are not assisted by use of their mother tongue are psychologically lost for lack of understanding, develop low self- esteem, fall behind in achievement, are labeled negatively as learning disabled, and leave school in great numbers before graduation.

Litigation

In the court case Flores v. Arizona, a 2001 ruling by federal judge Alfredo Marquez found that the state of Arizona had an inadequate formula for providing state dollars for support of bilingual programs. He has instructed the state legislature to increase its allocation of funds to school districts to operate bilingual education programs from the current amount of $20 million. Some Senate Democrats have estimated that it will cost another $170 million.

The Flores case best reflects Arizona's attitude and treatment of education for Latinos and sets the stage for the following recommendations. The court case was first filed in 1992 and a final ruling occurred in 2000. As of the end of 2001, the legislature refused to address the decision. The judge found as a result of documentation that bilingual education programs were not only under-funded but inadequately funded, too many students were in classrooms, not enough qualified teachers were hired, and insufficient teacher materials were available. These conditions are the same that English speaking Latinos students face. Furthermore, by taking a decade to document the problem and hopefully to start to resolve the problem, an entire generation of Latino students will be disadvantaged and will fail to qualify and participate in a higher education program of study.

The legislative leadership and the majority of legislators reacted to the judge's ruling is the same way as they responded to the court ruling on school facilities. They have chosen to resist the judge's ruling of providing much needed additional resources. The state's formula to support and maintain school facilities created unequal school building conditions. The legislature tried to reject, ignore, and resist correcting the financial short-comings. As a result it took the legislature over two years to develop an acceptable plan, called "Students FIRST".

The attorney successful in the school facilities case is thinking of initiating another court case against the state of Arizona that promotes the argument that the state neither provides adequate state funds to poor school districts nor in an equitable fashion to underwrite general instruction.

Recomendation

The following recommendations are divided into three categories. They go beyond just targeting the alleviation of past neglect to stimulate innovation and foster new relationships.

Funding

• Increase funds for bilingual education and school facilities.
• Provide state funds for post-secondary scholarships targeted to Latinos.
• Provide forgivable loans to students preparing to be teachers and who teach their first three years in a school with 50 percent Latino student population.

Programs

• Include courses about Latino youth, their culture, learning styles, etc. in teacher preparation programs.
• Provide incentive pay to teachers who teach bilingual and ESL students.
• Convert schools located in communities with heavy Latino populations into "full service" places where city and state agencies provide on-site assistance.
• Offer sessions to parents about a variety of matters ranging from citizenship to English instruction to helping their children succeed in school.
• Offer Advance Placement courses in every high school that has over 50 percent Latino students.

Partnerships

• Establish P-16 consortiums that have:
• an outreach component for motivating Latino students to consider various professions.
• formal recruitment of Latino students starting at the middle school level.
• Articulate formal articulation agreements between high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions.
• Establish partnerships between schools and business, such as Adopt a School, where volunteers from a business become tutors, contribute equipment, or help to purchase certain supplies, etc.