Apparently Governor Doug Ducey and the Arizona legislature think that the state will prosper with fewer educated people.
According to Politico.com:
ANGER IN ARIZONA: Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona’s Republican-led legislature shocked many this weekend by passing a “values-based budget” that slashes higher education funding by 13 percent – $99 million – and completely pulls state support for community colleges in the process. The unrest isn’t letting up, according to local reports [http://bit.ly/1b2JlWz ], with Arizona Board of Regents Chairman Mark Killian exploring a possible lawsuit against the legislature during the board’s Wednesday meeting. He points to a state constitutional provision stating that a college education must be “as nearly free as possible.”
– Ducey argues that “with a $600 million line item, the universities are one of the largest recipients of state funding.” That’s despite a 48 percent per-student funding cut for public colleges since 2008 – the largest nationwide – and average tuition increase of nearly $4,500, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Killian acknowledges that such a lawsuit may be a longshot. Meanwhile, the Phoenix New Times reports [http://bit.ly/1D71pKZ ], Arizona State University President Michael Crow says he’ll try to figure out a way to deal with the cuts while still keeping in-state tuition flat next year, as promised. “The ramifications for the state’s economy will take years to play out because it is our colleges and universities that produce Arizona’s strongest asset: educated young men and women trained to play leading roles in a rapidly changing world,” Crow said.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is Arizona really part of the United States or a different country ruled by Tea Party Republicans as a fiefdom, and if so, who is their anointed king/dictator?
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you rink is cross-posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Catching-up-with-George-Mi-in-General_News-Budget_Education_Funding_Higher-Education-150314-121.html#comment537248
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The draconian legislation in Arizona, intent on severe budget cuts to higher education, is connected to ALEC—the American Legislative Exchange Council—and one of its many conduits for propagating minimal governmental spending called “State Budget Solutions.”
Here is the pitch for so-called “value-based,” or “reality-based” budgeting. It eliminates almost all earmarks for “popular spending areas,” including K-12 and higher education because they are too expensive and are not much more than “special interest lobbies.”
State Budget Solutions says:
“The best time for legislators to deal with (and put an end to) overspending is now. This requires fundamental reforms to state governments and budget systems. It means tough decisions that impact powerful special interests in popular spending areas like K-12 public schools, higher education, Medicaid, or state employee salaries and benefits (including pensions).
The alternative, if legislators are not willing to do the necessary hard work, is to raise taxes. But government spending in many states is already at higher levels than taxpayers can sustain. The blame for this largely belongs to public officials who have forgotten that governments exist to serve citizens, not the other way around.”
Click to access 20121107_ALECRealityBasedBudgeting.pdf
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Laura, read this:
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
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Boy, just when you think Texas, Louisiana and NC have dibs on crazy education policies, Arizona keeps jumping in there. What is WITH these states? Sad. Truly sad.
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Are you not aware that the INSTITUTION of public education is being privatized, state by state, and district by district? Yes , it is a real conspiracy to dumb down the people so they will believe the liars and propagandists who represent our shadow government, the billionaires who run everything. 15,880 school districts in 50 states let them cherry pick the vulnerable ones.
Unless we stop them, there will be no public schools, and I think the speed at which this is happening is not yet realized, even here. In the general public, this is unknown.
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All thsoe states are following the same ALEC playbook.
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Of course and here is the process
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
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Unfortunately, lawsuits won’t work in cases such as this. Cave Creek USD successful sued the Arizona on violating a voter initiative (Prop. 301) which was to insure schools would be funded properly, and Governor Brewer, the State Legislature, and now, Governor Ducey are appealing the decision. Our Arizona schools will never see that money. They also continue to violate the law while they hand out large tax cuts to businesses. Are we not supposed to pay our bills before giving money away. And in 6 year of doing this, we are getting low paying, part time jobs from it.
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This makes me so angry.
Growing up in AZ, I had art in an art room with an art teacher. I had PE everyday. We had music 3 x a week, and a well stocked library. I took community college classes for $35-40/credit hour, and my university tuition was under $2500 for the year + room & board, which was mostly affordable by working a full-time summer job and a part time job during the school year. Each successive GOP governor slowly chipped away at public education in AZ until is merely a shadow of what it was.
In WA, our Supreme Court ordered the legislature to get to work fully funding K-12 education (districts and entities sued the state for not fully funding K-12 and won), but instead they are screwing around with waste-of-time bills like splitting large school districts, tying teacher evals to test scores (just passed in the Senate), and whining about I-1351 (reduce class size initiative, which they want to try and “edit”), meanwhile clearing a path for charter schools to start draining our districts of cash.
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I just watched John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, and his pice on the state Lotteries, which sell the idea that the moneys join got education.Well, 0% goes to education.
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