Keynote Address: Vince Yanez

Vince Yanez speaking with conference participants

Arizona will not improve the academic achievement gap that faces Arizona’s poorest students without public engagement, policy change and discussion, former Arizona State Board of Education Executive Director Vince Yanez told the Friday morning general session at the ASBA/ASA Annual Conference.

“Poverty is the greatest predictor of student academic achievement. The achievement gap between poor children and rich children has grown significantly over the past three decades and is now nearly twice as large as the black-white gap,” Yanez told those in attendance.

The “perfect storm” Arizona is in is the result of the high cuts to education at the same time the state has adopted increased standards and rigor for classrooms. Arizona not only saw the highest percentage cuts to K-12 education from FY2008 to FY2013, but also saw the highest cuts in the nation to higher education and the highest university tuition increases during that same time.

Yanez showed statistics that put Arizona with the fifth highest poverty rate in the nation. He stated that 29 percent of Arizona children live in poverty. “This is not a phenomenon of the Great Recession. It’s been going on and on,” he said.

Using his tenure at the State Board of Education and in his current role as executive director for the Arizona Venture Fund for Quality Education at the Arizona Community Foundation to view the state of education, Yanez said there are several areas that need to be addressed to improve the academic future for Arizona students. These range from accessibility to quality early childhood education and all-day kindergarten to Career and Technical Education offerings, higher educational opportunities and teacher training and retention.

Less than 25 percent of students in poverty in Arizona attend any type of preschool program and funding of all-day kindergarten was cut by the Arizona Legislature in 2010, putting school districts in a position to fund those programs from other sources.

“We know the benefits of preschool and all-day kindergarten,” he said. “Other states do this. It does not need to be this way.”

Other issues that face poorer schools and students is teacher turnover. But they’re not alone. There are 700 current teacher openings in Arizona. Last year, districts and charter schools reported 938 full-time positions were filled with substitutes. In addition the Arizona State Retirement System reports that 25 percent of Arizona’s current teachers will be eligible to retire in a few short years and there has been a seven percent decrease in students entering Arizona’s teacher preparation programs.

“That is hugely problematic. We’re experiencing this huge shortfall right now … but it’s going to be even more significant unless we address that now,” he said.

School leaders and educators need to talk to those at the Legislature and at the State Board of Education, he said.

“The current is going in the wrong direction from my perspective. The current is not going in a way to invest in public education. It’s divesting,” he said.

He said his current group - the Arizona Community Foundation - hopes to help change that through education advocacy. He encouraged the audience to find more “pro-public education" community members to run for office and to talk to those who are already in office.

Michelle Reese
Higley Unified School District