Yesterday TMV’s Resident Ranter Marc Pascal posted an article titled “WHEW! Thank you Governor Brewer! But it’s just not enough anymore”. In his piece, Marc praised Arizona’s governor for vetoing the Birther Bill that would have required presidential candidates to provide proof of natural born citizenship and the Guns on Campus bill. Both bills passed the legislature with large majorities. He went on to point out that those vetoes pale in the face of much larger problems facing the state and nation.
Hiding behind my screen name, I entered the comment thread to offer a few tidbits on the state of politics and governance in Arizona. Marc and I both live in the Phoenix metro area. Today, I will take up one subject in more depth. The others will be addressed in Part II in the next day or two. While this is specific to Arizona, it is part of a problem sweeping the country, and comes as a warning to those living elsewhere.
Public Education: The Broken Promise
By 2009, Arizona had already cut its funding for public education to 2006 levels. The 2009 budget included removing $144 million for textbooks, desks, buses and classroom technology. 2010 saw another $400 million in education cuts, hitting kindergarten programs, K-12, and state universities. Another $180 million of that involved textbooks, supplies and technology. Even before the 2010 cuts, Arizona ranked near the bottom in per student funding.
As a result of the 2010 budget cutting, state universities were forced to raise tuition 16-19% depending on the school. They will be forced to raise them drastically again this year.
On the ground in neighborhoods, entire schools shut down. Students who had been in classes of 20 or so per teacher found themselves relocated to schools and crammed into classrooms with nearly double the student/teacher ratio. In my neighborhood, a once vibrant elementary school built less than 15 years ago gathers dust and slips into unattended disrepair.
In high schools, trained and certified assistant teachers and substitute teachers are being replaced by 12th graders carrying the title “teaching assistant”. On a recent day at my daughter’s high school the teacher was absent. Rather than bring in a substitute teacher, the high school senior “TA” was assigned to handle the class. Under pressure from high school peers, the “TA” disseminated the answer key to an upcoming test to the class.
On to the 2011 budget. After the budget ax fell in 2010, Governor Jan Brewer went to the voters asking them to pass a one penny per dollar increase in the state sales tax to save public education. The sales tax increase was to raise $1 billion to prop up Arizona’s public education system. The voters, believing their governor, approved the increase.
What did Brewer do to uphold her part of that bargain with the voters? Well, she proposed a budget with reduced education cuts, but failed to fight for it when legislative leaders took the meat ax to education yet again. The education cuts in Arizona’s 2011 budget took out nearly half a billion more, $454 million.
Craig Barrett, former CEO of Intel, warned that Arizona’s disinvestment in education would make it difficult to attract employers offering good paying jobs. He went on to predict that Intel would never locate in Arizona again because of the state’s lack of commitment to education.
The parent-founded Arizona Education Network that advocates for public education spoke through its president.
“More middle-class jobs will be lost, more middle-class homes will be foreclosed, more schools in middle-class neighborhoods will be closed and middle-class property values will continue to plummet.
…
Our middle-class families understood that education funding is critical for their own survival. That’s why they voted…to tax themselves more in the middle of a recession to pay for public education. … Yet, the Governor…and the Legislature…violated the public’s trust with these deep cuts to education.”
So, what happened to all that money that was supposed to go to public education. Well, in the middle of a budget crisis, the legislature did manage to pass over half a billion, $538 million, in tax cuts primarily for businesses and upper income individuals. It was the 17th tax cut in the past 23 years.
Welcome to the circus. Beware, the clowns and barkers and peanut vendors may soon be coming to a location near you.
Sources: Arizona Education Network; The Arizona Republic at AZCentral.com; The [National] Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; the Arizona House of Representatives Education Committee “unofficial” website, EducateAZ.org. Apologies to readers hoping for links; that’s not working. I’ll try to fix it for future posts.
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.