The Utah State Board of Education oversees public K-12 schools. Eight of its 15 seats are up for election this year, with five contested races. Three of those races are in districts that represent many Latino Utahns.
Almost 1 in 5 Utah students are Latino, according to state education data, making them the second-largest demographic group after white students.
With the success he’s seen in the organization, Enriquez believes the state board should support programs like Latinos in Action that help Latino youth develop academic skills for success. and Latino students being “ostracized in their own schools” by not participating in extracurriculars or going on to college.
The progress of that group is what inspired Enriquez to create the Latinos in Action organization, to “create our own pipeline of heroes” in schools throughout the state. “Every time that the board comes together, I just keep thinking, ‘You know, in theory, sure. In theory, all these [ideas] are great,” said Estrada, a former educator at the bilingual Dual Immersion Academy who now works with youth development organization Campfire National. “But that is not true for every student, not just in Utah, but everywhere.”
Estrada told the board that in a perfect world, families would read the survey and want their children to answer the survey honestly. “Recognizing the potential that there is in our kids, all our kids,” is important, Estrada said. “We just need to be able to cultivate that potential. Representation in the classroom helps take that understanding to a deeper level, as she witnessed at Dual Immersion Academy, Estrada said. And through Latinos in Action, Enriquez has see that representation and empowerment leads to students becoming more involved in their futures.
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