Latino Education Tied to Arizona's Economic Future
The Latino education gap in Arizona took center stage last week when educators, state leaders and business community members attended a forum on the “State of Hispanic Education” in Tucson.
“Arizona is basically an hourglass state where one part of the hourglass are mostly older, white individuals moving into retirement, and the other part is the younger generation, which are largely Latinos,” Arizona State University Morrison Institute Latino Public Policy Center Director Joseph Garcia told VOXXI. “So you have a big large Latino population coming into the workforce that’s going to be either highly-educated and highly-skilled, or you’re going to have Arizona fall into a permanent status of a second or third tier state because we’re going to have many people who have a hard time making ends meet.”
He added, “Depending on how you look at it, it can be an opportunity or a crisis.”