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篇章阅读11：移民教育 Latino youths need better education for Arizona to take full advantage of the possibilities their exploding population offers. Arizonas fast-growing Latino population offers che state tremendous promise and a challenge. Even more than the aging of the baby boomers. the Latino boom is fundamentally reorienting the states economic and social structure. Immigration and natural increase have added 600,000 young Latino residents to the states population in the past decade.Half of the population younger than 18 in both Phoenix and Tucson cs now Latino. Within 20 years. Latinos will make up half of the homegrown entry-level labor pool in the states two largest labor markets. What is more, Hispanics are becoming key economic players. Most people dont notice it. but Latinos born in Arizona make up much of their immigrant parents economic and educational deficits. For example. second-generation Mexican-Americans secure an average of 12 grades of schooling where their parents obtained less than nine. That means they erase 70 percent of their parents lag behind third-generation non-Hispanic Whites in a single generation. A11 of chis hands the state a golden opportunity. At a time when many states will struggle with labor shortages because of modest population growth. Arizona has a priceless chance m build a populous, hardworking and skilled workforce on which to base future prosperity. The problem is that Arizona and its Latino residents may not be able to seize this opportunity. Far too many of Arizonas Latinos drop out of high school or fail to obtain the basic education needed for more advanced study. As a result,educational deficits are holding back many Latinos-and the state as well. To be sure, construction and low-end service jobs continue to absorb tens of thousands of Latino immigrants with little formal education. But over the long tern. most of Arizonas Latino citizens remain ill-prepared to prosper in an increasingly demanding knowledge economy. | 
