Latino appointees urged
Prominent Latino community and education leaders are calling for more Latino representation on the state’s three most influential education boards.
Before Arizona can close the stark achievement gap between its Latino and white students, education advocates say, it must first resolve another disparity: The lack of minority representation on the state’s three most influential education boards.
Though state data show nearly half of Arizona’s 1.1 million students are Latino or Hispanic, a newly formed coalition says only one of 30 board members responsible for implementing policies at the state’s public universities and K-12 schools is.
Arizona for Latino Leaders in Education includes several prominent Latino community and education leaders. On Thursday, the group publicly urged Gov. Doug Ducey to appoint more Latinos to the Board of Regents, State Board of Education and State Board for Charter Schools.
Alfred Mendoza, founder of Arizona College Prep Academy, a Tucson charter school, is the sole Latino to sit on any of the three boards as an appointed member. He serves on the charter board.
“We don’t want tokenism,” said Yara Vargas-Ortiz, a Phoenix doctor and parent. “We have a great pool of good candidates that we know will serve not only our Latino kids, but every kid in our communities.”
More diverse board representation will help ensure policy decisions address Latino learning outcomes at district schools, charter schools and public universities, according to the coalition.
In 2017-18, white students passed the reading and math portions of AzMERIT at about twice the rate of Latino and Hispanic students.
That gap has remained virtually the same since the standardized test debuted in 2015.
“We can only serve students when we have leadership who understand the needs of those students,” said Francisca Montoya of the Arizona Latino School Board Association. “Latino students will soon be the majority in
Arizona schools.”
The coalition asked Ducey to appoint Latino members to fill the positions of three members — one on each of the three state boards —who are currently serving despite having “expired terms.”
Valle del Sol CEO Kurt Sheppard said the state “can’t wait to move the needle in increments.”
“We need a seismic shift in how we’re going to improve education outcomes and increase education attainment for Latinos,” he said.
The terms for five other board members on the three boards, including Mendoza’s, expire in 2019.
The governor’s choices are limited for certain education-board appointments.
The State Board of Education, for instance, must include a state university president, the leader of a communitycollege district, a charter-school administrator, a school district superintendent, a teacher, a county superintendent and the state superintendent of public instruction.
The governor has more autonomy when it comes to Board of Regents appointments, considered to be among the most prestigious boards in the state.
Diversity ‘at every level’
The coalition’s public plea comes as the race for Arizona governor ramps up, with incumbent Republican Ducey seeking re-election.
Daniel Ruiz, a spokesman for the governor, questioned the coalition’s timing, saying Ducey has a track record of advocating for diversity.
“I’m hesitant to respond to what seems like a campaign-season publicity stunt,” Ruiz said.
“I will say, though, that the governor absolutely values diversity and inclusiveness in the appointments he makes, at every level. This is reflected in his appointments to members of his cabinet, senior staff, judicial appointments and appointments to boards and commissions across the state.”
Ruiz did not elaborate when asked if Ducey had specific plans for increasing diversity on the three state education boards.
The governor has been touting his dedication to public education since the April #RedForEd teacher walkout shut down schools across the state for six days.
The massive demonstration followed years of frustration over a perceived lack of urgency on the part of Ducey and lawmakers to address the state’s education-funding crisis.
Ducey proposed and successfully pushed through the Legislature the largest education funding increase in more than a decade, which included $306 million for teacher-pay raises this year.
Some voters have called Ducey’s professed commitment to public schools “disingenuous” in the months since, and education has become a primary issue in the election.
David Garcia, the front-runner in the Democratic primary for governor, is an Arizona State University professor and education-policy expert who believes his education chops would position him well in a general-election race against Ducey.
Garcia narrowly lost the 2014 race for superintendent of public instruction.
If elected, Garcia would be the first Latino in the Governor’s Office in decades. He told The Republic his family represents Arizona’s shifting demographics, and said his election could help the state reverse the anti-immigrant reputation.