Arizona and Colorado adopted ALEC-inspired tax-cutting policies, writes Jan Resseger. Their chief victim was public schools and teachers. This was intentional, not an accidental consequence.
“Arizona and Colorado, where teachers walked out last Thursday and Friday, represent the two states where the gap is widest among all the fifty states. In Arizona, public school teachers make only 62.8 percent and in Colorado 64.5 percent of the salaries of other college graduates. And in both states the cost of living is quickly rising….
”Here are some realities in Arizona, where teachers continued their strike yesterday. The Washington Post’s Moriah Balingit reports: “When adjusted for inflation, Arizona cut total state per-pupil funding by 37 percent between 2008 and 2015, more than any other state. That has led to relatively low teacher salaries, crumbling school buildings, and the elimination of free full-day kindergarten in some districts… Low teacher pay has contributed to teacher shortages in Arizona. Some districts, unable to find qualified teaching candidates, have turned to emergency long-term substitutes who are required to hold only a high school diploma.
”Writing for Education Week, Daarel Burnete II adds: “Arizona is one of seven states that, in response to voter demands, has cut income taxes in the last decade, a revenue source schools rely on heavily. In 2016 alone, the state allowed $13.7 billion to go uncollected through a series of income, sales, and other tax exemptions, deductions, allowances, exclusions, or credits, according to the state’s department of revenue. At the same time, Arizona has made among the most dramatic budget cuts in the nation to its schools, totaling 14 percent in the last decade alone… The paradox is that Arizona’s economy is in its best condition in years. Its unemployment rate stands at 4.9 percent, and the state’s 100 largest corporations added more than 20,000 jobs last year alone.”
”Colorado’s capacity to fund its schools is complicated by an American Legislative Exchange Council backed Taxpayer Bill of Rights, a TABOR, adopted into Colorado’s state constitution in 1992. Here is a description about how Colorado’s TABOR affects school funding: “(W)hat it basically means is that lawmakers can’t raise your taxes without making you vote on it first. And it also limits how much of a ‘raise,’ so to speak, that the state gets each year. And, if the state happens to generate too much money, it can’t keep it. Instead, this goes back to taxpayers.” TABOR and other tax freezes and limitations in Colorado mean that state’s allocation for school districts has declined steadily.
”The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains further that Colorado is the only state that has embedded a TABOR into its constitution despite attempts in other states, where voters have defeated passage of this kind of restrictive policy that is being promoted by far-right anti-tax interests. More than a decade after the TABOR was passed, Colorado’s revenue collapsed so completely that: “In 2005, Colorado voters approved a measure to suspend TABOR’s formula for five years to allow the state to rebuild its public services. Unfortunately, the suspension did not last long enough for the state to recover fully from the period that TABOR was in effect, and the Great Recession further undermined that effort. TABOR continues to cause ongoing fiscal headaches for Colorado even as the economy improves.”
The citizens of these states must decide whether they want low taxes or a decent education system. Charters and vouchers are no substitute for adequate funding.
“Arizona cut total state per-pupil funding by 37 percent between 2008 and 2015, more than any other state.”
You just can’t imagine what they’re thinking. Inside some ed reform think tank are a group of experts who actually believe that they can cut funding 40% and not only not have any ill effects, but that they will IMPROVE schools.
It’s a fairy tale. One has to willfully and deliberately ignore reality to continue to promote this.
Imagine it in one of the pricey private schools they send their own kids to- they get a letter from headmaster that Private Academy has decided to economize, and will cut spending 40%. But headmaster assures them this will have absolutely no affect on students and in fact is GOOD for students- not in any way headmaster can specify, but just “good”. None of them would believe that. Why do they believe it for our schools?
Democrats in Ohio are blaming Republicans for neglecting (well- completely and utterly ignoring) public schools but I don’t think we should buy it.
Democrats don’t have a majority but not having a majority doesn’t mean one can’t be an effective advocate for public school students.
They were lousy advocates, from the federal level all the way down to the local level. almost to a man or woman. They were happy to use public school voters to get elected but they minute they got in they rushed onto the ed reform bandwagon, and public schools dropped to the bottom of everyone’s priority list.
Republicans never could have done this without a lot of help from Democrats. The Obama Administration was the worst. They had to know states were killing public schools- 99% of it happened on their watch- yet they did absolutely nothing. They often JOINED with Republicans. There wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the Obama Administration;s approach to public schools and the Kasich Administrations. In many ways the Obama people were worse. They not only trashed public schools constantly they ALSO lobbied for gimmicky unfunded mandates. They spent EIGHT YEARS on those stupid teacher rankings and there won’t be a state in the country that keeps them in another five. Because they don’t improve schools. That was one heck of an expensive experiment and as far as I can tell it all came from a single Harvard economist. They relied on one person’s opinion to sink BILLIONS and YEARS into a gimmicky economics theory. Boy, that guy must be super-smart. He sure impressed the hell out of DC, so much so that they jammed his theory into 30 states. MILLIONS of kids.
I agree. Education is not a topic of interest in Ohio’s Democratic Party or at the national level.
This has been the most frightening part of having elections in our state: “They were happy to use public school voters to get elected but they minute they got in they rushed onto the ed reform bandwagon.” So often this has been exactly how the game has been played: candidates with no true personal convictions about protecting public schools then willing to bend whichever way the political wind pushes them.
I am generally a peace loving, live and let live kind of guy. But I look forward to the day that avaricious bastards like the Koch Brothers and their ALEC, and it is their plaything, DIE.