“Arizona’s leaders are willing to shoulder the burden of their own financial mismanagement over the years on the backs of our students. This kind of false solution is worse than shortsightedness; it borders on malice. The decision to keep Arizona at the bottom of education funding continues to be a deliberate one.”
The Tucson Citizen editorialized that the cuts would “threaten kids and education,” specifically amounting to “something that probably would wipe out all-day kindergarten, libraries, school nurses, counselors, and much more.” In addition to entire K-12 programs potentially disappearing, the cuts could also lead to the “elimination of most special programs, certainly a great number of activities, and increased class sizes.” Despite the full implications of these cuts, and the voices united in protest against them, alternatives have scarcely even been given consideration, as recent articles indicate:
“Representative Kyrsten Sinema (D-15) led a bipartisan effort last week within the House Appropriations Committee to develop $850 million in options to decrease the budget shortfall. Sinema also sponsored a bipartisan substitute motion that the Committee remain open to alternatives, which passed the Committee 7-4 with both Democratic and Republican support. Committee Chairman Kavanagh voted against the motion -- just days after telling reporters, ‘We’re keeping an open mind.’”
“Kavanagh said that he and most Republicans are unwilling to consider tax hikes, even temporarily, instead of further spending cuts. ‘I’m not going down the tax road until the situation is so dire that there’s no other alternative,’ he said. ‘And I’m not prepared to concede that at this point.’”
“Tough times call for tough measures, and the two principal authors of the budget ‘options plan’ said they welcome alternative cuts if lawmakers find certain ones unacceptable. ‘There’s not much left to cut unless we really want to get draconian,’ said Rep. John Kavanagh, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.”
Despite Kavanagh’s pretense to having an open mind, his assessment of the lack of urgency to the situation, and the notion that the deep slashes mandated by the 2009 approved budget bill are not draconian enough to thoughtfully consider alternatives, Arizona State University President Michael Crow described just how “dire” the impending cuts really are:
“Our Legislature has failed to live up to its constitutionally mandated responsibility to fund education. Borrowing funds, running a budget deficit (which Arizona is constitutionally allowed to do for one year), and raising taxes are not politically popular. But the alternative will be even less popular -- creating for Arizona a Third World education and economic infrastructure.”
As Crow observes, it’s clear that there are alternatives to slashing funding for education, such as those proposed by former governor Napolitano, including “borrowing, temporary spending cuts, delays in paying some bills, and using money from the state’s reserves.” Ignoring these options, the legislature is now moving to permanently repeal the state’s property tax, which was suspended for three years in 2006 when the state had a surplus but scheduled to return later this year. As Democratic State Senator Rebecca Rios noted:
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