$300 million cut from budget; impacts schools and state’s disadvantaged
After Thursday’s senate vote failed to pass $300 million in cuts, the Arizona Legislature convened early yesterday afternoon to vote on the same legislation once again. This time, Senate president Bob Burns was successful in gathering enough votes to pass cuts, which include $144 million from K-12 budgets and $150 million from the budget for the Department of Economic Security.
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This $144 million mid-year cut in the state’s K-12 soft capital budget — which pays for books, technology and school buses – is on top of the $133 million cut from K-12 in January of 2009.
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Work on balancing the budget is expected to resume following the Thanksgiving holiday, when Governor Brewer will meet with the majority party to discuss scheduling another special session. This will be the fifth special session since the 49th legislative session began at the beginning of this year. [Yes, we're keeping track.] Movement so far indicates that there will be further cuts in an effort to close the nearly $2 billion deficit. Little has been suggested with respect to the other side to the budget balancing act: Raising revenue.
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Legislature approves $300 million in cuts ~ Mary Jo Pitzl, Arizona Republic, 11/23/09
Gov., lawmakers cut budget by $300 million ~ Howard Fischer, East Valley Tribune, 11/23/09
Arizona governor approves $300 million in spending cuts ~ Tim Vetscher, ABC 15, 11/23/09
Lack of books for children would be appalling – lack of technology, not so much – computer access is highly overrated and more often than not misused and abused. I have no sympathy for many school administrations. We long ago learned that throwing more and more money into education does nothing to improve the quality. This may be a blessing in disguise. Perhaps now some of the bloated, irresponsible districts (TUSD comes to mind) will be forced to focus on education; not perks, not extracurricular activities.
“We long ago learned that throwing more and more money into education does nothing to improve the quality.”
Just when has this state EVER thrown money into education?
As for TUSD’s past administrative malfeasance, that old news is so played. Come on. Dr. Fagen and her team have taken significant steps to clean up a rather entrenched mess. Perks? What perks? There’s no taking advantage of “perks” at TUSD now. In fact, Dr. Fagen returned the bonus which she was written into her contract BY the board of TUSD at the time of her hiring.
Technology is the way forward. You better get used to it. Books are fine and good. But if we want the next generation to compete in a global market, we have to educate them using today’s technology. I’m not sure if the advantage of parchment paper over cave drawings was seen as “highly overrated” but thank God no one listened. These days, it seems as if our state is bent on returning to those dark, unenlightened days.
C Wren must not have children in school. I have 2 in high school and one in elementary. To say that technology is not important is a completely ignorant position. Google is presently scanning the contents of most major university’s libraries; most publication are now available on the internet; electronic books are the future of reading. My children’s text books are available on line as are many of the resource materials that they use for their classes. Teachers post all assignments and powerpoint lectures on the internet. Without the tools to access information on-line, we are consigning our students to an intellectual backwater. The key to competition in the 21st century is the ability to access data and analyze it.
As for TUSD, in case you haven’t noticed they are “under new management”. As a state, Arizona is well below the national average of 11.2% sepnt on administration (we are at 9.5%). We are dead last in spending on education. We can’t even compete against other American states; how will are children be able to compete internationally when funding for their education is so paltry.