Proposed Budget Cuts to Arizona Schools Stirs Fear

PHOENIX (Wire Services) January 25, 2010 — Child and education advocates are worried about Gov. Jan Brewer's new round of proposed cuts to Arizona's education budget, including axing state financial support for all-day kindergarten.

They also fear cutting education spending will risk the state's right to keep federal-stimulus money it received as part of last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Parents and voters need to really think about what this means and what their priorities are and what trade-offs they want to make," said Dana Wolfe Naimark, CEO of the Children's Action Alliance. "Education has already been hit, but it will be hit now like nothing we've seen."

Naimark is among those who think a temporary sales-tax increase of 1 percentage point, from 5.6 percent to 6.6 percent, combined with other budget cuts is not enough to fill the estimated $1.4 billion shortfall for the current fiscal year and the more than $3 billion projected for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1.

Brewer's $7.8 billion budget for the current fiscal year and $8.6 billion for next fiscal year calls for sweeping cuts to juvenile corrections, state employee pay and several social-service programs, including those that serve seriously mentally ill adults and health care for low-income children.

The proposed budget cuts this year equal $92 million after increases to cover inflation and to backfill federal-stimulus money that is ending.

Deep impact on kids

Education advocates are most concerned about the end of state support for all-day kindergarten, which Brewer has said would save the state $218 million.

Brewer's budget also calls for cutting $180 million in soft capital used for books, technology and other teaching tools.

"The impact of these cuts on children, families, and Arizona jobs is truly stunning," Naimark said in a statement.

"Although in her State of the State address, the governor proudly proclaimed she wants the world to know Arizona is open for business, these proposals announce just the opposite. With the weakening of K-12 and early education, the dismantling of much of our health-care system, and the elimination of most basic and emergency services, there will be no business as usual in our state for years to come."

A spokesman for the Governor's Office didn't return calls seeking comment about the education budget.

Education represents the lion's share - about 48 percent - of the state budget for this fiscal year.

The other largest pieces are the state's three universities, which constitute 13 percent of the budget, and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state Medicaid health-insurance program for the poor, which also makes up 13 percent.

The state Legislature faces a revenue crisis after cutting taxes 16 of the past 22 years, according to Dennis Hoffman, an economist at Arizona State University.

Brewer has proposed a temporary sales-tax hike of 1 cent on every $1, but conservative legislators have met that idea with resistance.

Bracing for funding loss

As Arizona legislators begin slogging through next year's more than $3 billion shortfall in the state's budget, education advocates are bracing for more cuts that could leave parents footing more of the bill of their child's education.

Last year's $144 million cut to soft capital funds that pay for textbooks, desks and buses for K-12 schools means Arizona's school funding has dropped to 2006 spending levels, said John Wright, president of the Arizona Education Association.

If the state cuts any more money from the schools' budget this fiscal year, Arizona is in jeopardy of violating a "maintenance of effort" requirement for obtaining and retaining federal-stimulus funds, he said.

It is unclear, said Wright and Chuck Essigs, a lobbyist for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, whether the state can cut more money from education to offset the budget deficit for fiscal year 2011.

So far, no one at the U.S. Department of Education - not even Secretary Arne Duncan - has clarified whether that "maintenance of effort" requirement is effective until June 30, 2011, which is when the stimulus money runs out.

Some legislators hoping for more leeway in cutting state funds have interpreted the regulation to mean the funding requirement expires before then, by the end of this calendar year.

Wright acknowledged regardless of how that issue is resolved, "more cuts and more programs will be eliminated."

"You've still got a big gaping hole" in the state budget, he added.

The AEA is still reeling from a law that stripped its local unions of the bargaining rights they held during layoffs. It filed a lawsuit in the fall challenging the law.

The AEA and some Democrats also have complained the state school tax-credit programs begun more than a decade ago are a drain on state revenue and should be suspended until the economic crisis has ebbed and the state budget is under control.

The program awards school supporters by giving them a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for their donations to support private-school tuition and public-school activities such as field trips or character education programs.

Wright said it is illogical to continue such tax credits at a time like this.

"We will have parents subsidizing band uniforms while their schools are firing teachers," Wright said. "We will have people subsidizing private education while cutting services for the working poor."

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said he thinks further education-budget cuts are inevitable.

Janice Palmer, lobbyist for the state School Boards Association, said she believes the governor's budget is "very realistic" given the budget deficit is so large.

"It's going to take a combination of revenue enhancements and cuts," she said. "We need real revenue and tax-structure changes.

"You're not going to cut your way out of this budget, but you're not going to tax your way out of this either."

All-day kindergarten cuts?

The elimination of all-day kindergarten paid by the state leads to broader discussions about school districts that cannot afford to fund the program and whose parents cannot afford to pay tuition for it, Palmer said.

"Lower-income districts are worried about that. There's still the discussion of how to keep offering it," she said.

Districts may be forced to make other program cuts or allow larger class sizes to cope with the cuts.

"Everyone has different abilities to access their tax base, but down the road, if too many decisions are shifted to local control then we may have a problem with inequity," Palmer said.

It also could prove politically unfavorable for legislators to consider cuts to all-day kindergarten this election year; several parents support it.

Mike Banks of Phoenix believes the all-day kindergarten program at Madison Traditional Academy has helped his son Connor develop social and academic skills that might be slower to develop if he went to school for only half the day.

"Connor enjoys interacting with the class as a group, but also gets more individualized instruction from his teacher he may not get in a half-day setting," he said. "Going to a half-day kindergarten wouldn't equate to half of the work getting done; it likely would be much less."

Education leaders speak out

Education advocates, officials and special-interest groups have weighed in on the state's budget crisis and how to raise education standards.

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