Funding Arizona Education

GOP Budget Proposal Slashes Funds For Arizona Education
by Mary Jo Pitzl - Jan. 16, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

In the GOP options plan, education is targeted for the biggest cuts over the next year and a half. The K-12 system is penciled in for a nearly $1 billion cut for this year and next.

"That's $1,000 a kid in Arizona over 17 months," said Rep. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa. He predicted that the proposed deep cuts to education won't win enough votes to pass.

Education, from kindergarten to the state universities, could take the biggest hit as lawmakers try to resolve the state's looming budget deficits, under a plan unveiled Thursday by Republican budget leaders.

The proposal to cut $1.5 billion from education budgets over the next year and a half drew immediate protests from education advocates, Democrats and some skeptical Republicans.

"What we shouldn't be doing is looking at education first," said House Minority Leader David Lujan, D-Phoenix. "It should be the last thing we do."

Education advocates were quick to cry foul.

The Arizona Board of Regents called the proposal to cut nearly $500 million from university budgets over the next year and a half "cataclysmic in the depth and breadth of devastation they will cause to our higher-education system in Arizona."

For the current-budget year, university spending cuts would be the largest contributor to the budget solution: 16 percent of the total, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

Next in line: The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona's alternative to Medicare. The plan proposes a $160 million cut this year.

Even prisons would take a hit: $22 million this year, which would reduce the deficit by 2.3 percent.

My Opinions: Typical Republican thinking, there is ‘no relation between spending on education and performance test scores’. Right. There's those test scores again.

Look out, the ‘Health Care Cost Containment System’ is next. Just the name tells you what it is. That ought to encourage retirement to Arizona.