Excellence Award in Honor of Gary P. Tang : Pete Hershberger

Over the last four years Arizona’s Representative Peter Hershberger (R-26) has been one of Arizona’s most courageous legislators, taking difficult and lonely positions based on his principles that have made him unpopular with many of his other-minded colleagues.  In 2005 in a very rare legislative maneuver, he was stripped of a committee chairmanship for his views.  The legislative leadership later reinstated him.
One of the views Mr. Hershberger holds and one that he has defended vigorously is that adult education and family literacy are fundamentally important parts of Arizona ’s public education efforts.  In 2003, when the majority in the legislature recommended defunding both adult education and family literacy, Representative Hershberger held ground and worked with Governor Janet Napolitano and others to save both programs.  He has been a vigilant and successful defender of both ever since.
Representative Hershberger knows adult education and meets with and counsels adult education students who visit the legislature to help them understand the legislative processes that have such potential to influence their educational future for good and ill.  Nominations for awards often include some exaggeration, but in Representative Hershberger’s case, it is not a stretch to conjecture that there would be no family literacy or adult education programs in Arizona as we know them today if it hadn’t been for the intervention and legislative advocacy and acumen of Peter Hershberger.  We enthusiastically encourage AALL to recognize this principled and determined legislator and citizen as the recipient of the Gary Tang ExcellenceAward.
In addition to chairing the Human Services Committee at the legislature, Pete founded and became Co-chair of the Children’s Caucus, a position he still holds. The caucus successfully supported children’s issues and programs in the tough budget cutting process resulting in the ’04 Budget and continues to protect and advocate for children’s issues including education.
Pete worked for the Arizona Department of Corrections with juveniles from 1972 to 1977 and was co-founder and co-owner of New Columbus, Inc. from 1977-99, working with delinquent and abused children and their families.  He has been certified by the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners as a Certified Professional Counselor since 1991 and he is currently an Administrator for Open Inn, Inc., a non-profit service organization in Tucson working with youth and their families since 1974. 
In 1998 Governor Hull appointed Pete to serve as the Pima County representative on the State Board of Directors for Community Colleges of Arizona, which provides governance and oversight for the state’s Community College system. He served three years prior to his election to the legislature. He was a member of the Board’s legislative committee and gained extensive and valuable knowledge of our state’s Community College system in workforce development and training our citizens to gain better paying jobs.
In addition to serving as Chairman of the Human Services committee, Representative Hershberger is also a member of the Federal Mandates and Property Rights Committee. Representative Hershberger also remains as Co-Chairman of the Children’s Caucus. Additionally, he is Co-Chair of the Adoption and Foster Care System, Co-Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Child Protective Services and Related Child Welfare Issues and Co-Chair of the Child Support Enforcement Subcommittee.  Pete Hershberger has established himself as hard working, respected citizen and member of the Arizona House of Representatives.  Representative Hershberger has advocated for education, children’s rights, business rights and opening the legislative process to public scrutiny and participation.  He is the only person in the history of the Legislature to follow both of his parents into the same legislative seat.