Cutting education funding

by David Safier

It looks like funding for Arizona public education will be cut as part of budget balancing.

I'd say this is a race to the bottom, but Arizona is already there -- either 49th or 50th in per pupil school spending. Maybe we'll get lucky and state number 47 48 is in an even deeper budget hole and is even more short-sighted than we are. Then we might edge our way up a notch.

I'm sure we don't have the stupidest students in the country, though we may have the most undereducated. But it looks like we have the stupidest legislative majority (cough, Republicans, cough) anywhere.

Comments

[AZW88]

I have been saying or months that education spending was going to be cut. It is the largest piece of the pie in the state budget and we have a serious revenue shortfall (and it is getting worse every day), so it HAS to be cut some. Under a Napalitano governorship, those cuts would not been as deep and as painful as they surely will under Brewer and the Republican legislature.

School districts should work now and be proactive and help put together things that they think they can do without for a short period of time. They will face cuts, there is no way around it. They need to be prepared.

Sadly, there are a bunch of great programs that Janet backed that will be put on the fast-tract to elimination once Jan Brewer is in charge. (all-day kindergarten is one of them... Sen Pres elect Burns runs day care centers and was hurt by all-day kindergarten)

[GOP Spartan]

David,

Care to offer some suggestions where the legislature can make up the 17% budget shortfall from over spending the last six years?

If not education, then I’m sure you can surely suggest some lines in the budget that add up to $1.4 Billion for this year and $2.3 Billion for next year that aren't as deserving.

Janet made this mess by increasing spending more than 74% above population growth and inflation. Had we continued with normal spending increases based on population and inflation we wouldn't be in the mess we are now.

Instead, once again the desire to reach that socialist utopia where the government gives you everything from cradle to grave and all you have to do is sit on your fat butt has done us in.

The freebies Janet implemented are about to come to an end and rightfully so.

[David Safier]

See, here's the thing, Spartan, I'm not in office, so I don't have to participate in the horrible, grand compromises (read, cuts) that are sure to spread hurt everywhere.

Here's the other thing. When we're 49th in education spending, the answer is anger, not compromise which will lead to further decimation of our schools and abandonment of our children. We have low tax rates relative to other states, and, though I'm not an expert, it looks like the taxes are poorly balanced, taking too much from those who can't afford it and not enough from those who can. We need to correct the balance and increase the amount of revenue raised by the state.

A truly realistic view of school cuts isn't compromise, it's anger over the lack of a rainy day fund, the earlier cutting of taxes during the good years when we could have stored some budget nuts for the winter we'll be suffering through for a few years.

And no, Spartan, Janet hasn't been giving out freebies. She's been trying to create programs that will bring Arizona out of its 19th century darkness into a bit more enlightenment. She hasn't done it perfectly, certainly, but she's tried to bargain with Republicans -- give them something she doesn't like to get something else she does like.

[Donna]

Where does this idiotic notion that spending must be matched to population growth and inflation come from, anyway? While those things are certainly a factor in spending decisions they are not the be all and end all of determining of how much should be spent, and on what. For example, the cost of certain materials, like for repairing roads often greatly outstrips inflation. Likewise, some years may see a decline in school enrollment rates, but that doesn't mean the fixed costs for maintaining the schools go down. I've yet to see a TABOR fan effectively demonstrate how their theory works in the real world. Everywhere it's been passed it's been a disaster.

And people who advocate for the kind of deregulation that leads to a multi-billion dollar government bailouts don't have a whole lotta room to grouse about socialism, just saying.

[AZW88]

Spartan, the shortfall can be attributed to the permanent tax cuts that the legislature pushed through several years ago. People love to bitch and moan about taxes, but Arizona has some of the lowest property and income tax rates in the country.

The governor tried to run a growing state on a shoestring budget. The legislature created this mess, and now they are going to 'fix' it with a slash and burn mentality. Programs that assist the poor and children will be gutted. More tax breaks will be given to big business. The universities and k-12 education will have their budgets slashed, while tax breaks for 'private school tuition organizations' will be increased (the limit for tax deductions to public schools are 250 per person, wherase private schools it is 1000)