Increase Funding to Arizona Education (K-12, Universities and Community Colleges)
The Issue
Since 2009, the Arizona State government has cut k-12 funding by $1 billion dollars, and Arizona is now in last place in the nation in funding. The most recent Arizona budget had cuts that reduced state spending for higher education by 14% or $99 million. Which offers scale backs for flagship universities like University of Arizona and Arizona State University. It also completely eliminates all money given to several community colleges. As Gary Rhoades, director of the U of A education department said, “The budget will hurt most of those hardworking, lower-income students who most can benefit from a college education in Arizona." Not only that, but it makes it harder for anyone living in Arizona to get any form of higher education to seek a better future. The budget also included cuts of $122 million in k-12 funding and $20 million in cuts to the department of child safety. However, one of the only parts of the budget to receive increased funding was private prisons. Funds were added to their budget for them to build and operate more prison beds with an overall plan of adding $60 million to the private prison funding. Not only that, but a starting teacher currently makes less in Arizona than a starting prison guard.
Not only were there budget cuts to education this year, but the Arizona State government already owed education millions of dollars.
In July, 2014, a state Supreme Court decision found that the state shorted the public school system for four years during the recession. The following quotes are from an AZ central article about the shorting of the funding.
"For the next five years, the ruling could cost the state $1.6 billion as it resets the starting point for school funding."
"Yet even with the extra $317 million, the schools are still shy of the $3,776 per student in base funding the state provided in 2008, before the Great Recession sent state tax collections plummeting."
This shows that the Arizona government in the past, and possibly still today, has been shorting the public school even more than the large amount they said they were, and have still not yet accounted for the shorting. The Arizona state government has been dishonest with funding and what we need is a major recall of many of the members, or at least for the money owed to schools to be completely paid out.
For reasons such as this, we feel that the Arizona state government doesn't take into account the future of the children living in the state or the quality of education they receive.
I am only a 14 year old Arizonan student that goes to Catalina Foothills high school, but I want the Arizona state government to make changes, and I think I speak for a lot of students, when I say that this is what we want.
We want a much larger percentage of the state's funding to go to schools instead of things such as prisons or corporate tax cuts. We want the state to admit to the exact amount of money it shorted schools to be told, paid out, and for whichever politicians involved in this shortening to be recalled. We want more money to go to higher education to increase our options for the future. We want more money to K-12 schools so we can get new textbooks and computers.We want more money for teacher's salaries so as to hire individuals who can effectively teach and engage a classroom. We want more money to school lunch programs instead of feeding children the cheapest possible food. We don't want another pointless standardized test that doesn't teach valuable skills, causes unproductive competition between schools that is just a way for whatever company makes the test to make a profit. And we want educators to have a say in the standardized tests we do take. We don't want to exploited. And we want to be heard.
SOURCES
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2015/04/15/schools-never-get-pay/25836305/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/08/arizona-education-cuts_n_6819886.html
http://dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=142665
Petition Closed
The Issue
Since 2009, the Arizona State government has cut k-12 funding by $1 billion dollars, and Arizona is now in last place in the nation in funding. The most recent Arizona budget had cuts that reduced state spending for higher education by 14% or $99 million. Which offers scale backs for flagship universities like University of Arizona and Arizona State University. It also completely eliminates all money given to several community colleges. As Gary Rhoades, director of the U of A education department said, “The budget will hurt most of those hardworking, lower-income students who most can benefit from a college education in Arizona." Not only that, but it makes it harder for anyone living in Arizona to get any form of higher education to seek a better future. The budget also included cuts of $122 million in k-12 funding and $20 million in cuts to the department of child safety. However, one of the only parts of the budget to receive increased funding was private prisons. Funds were added to their budget for them to build and operate more prison beds with an overall plan of adding $60 million to the private prison funding. Not only that, but a starting teacher currently makes less in Arizona than a starting prison guard.
Not only were there budget cuts to education this year, but the Arizona State government already owed education millions of dollars.
In July, 2014, a state Supreme Court decision found that the state shorted the public school system for four years during the recession. The following quotes are from an AZ central article about the shorting of the funding.
"For the next five years, the ruling could cost the state $1.6 billion as it resets the starting point for school funding."
"Yet even with the extra $317 million, the schools are still shy of the $3,776 per student in base funding the state provided in 2008, before the Great Recession sent state tax collections plummeting."
This shows that the Arizona government in the past, and possibly still today, has been shorting the public school even more than the large amount they said they were, and have still not yet accounted for the shorting. The Arizona state government has been dishonest with funding and what we need is a major recall of many of the members, or at least for the money owed to schools to be completely paid out.
For reasons such as this, we feel that the Arizona state government doesn't take into account the future of the children living in the state or the quality of education they receive.
I am only a 14 year old Arizonan student that goes to Catalina Foothills high school, but I want the Arizona state government to make changes, and I think I speak for a lot of students, when I say that this is what we want.
We want a much larger percentage of the state's funding to go to schools instead of things such as prisons or corporate tax cuts. We want the state to admit to the exact amount of money it shorted schools to be told, paid out, and for whichever politicians involved in this shortening to be recalled. We want more money to go to higher education to increase our options for the future. We want more money to K-12 schools so we can get new textbooks and computers.We want more money for teacher's salaries so as to hire individuals who can effectively teach and engage a classroom. We want more money to school lunch programs instead of feeding children the cheapest possible food. We don't want another pointless standardized test that doesn't teach valuable skills, causes unproductive competition between schools that is just a way for whatever company makes the test to make a profit. And we want educators to have a say in the standardized tests we do take. We don't want to exploited. And we want to be heard.
SOURCES
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2015/04/15/schools-never-get-pay/25836305/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/08/arizona-education-cuts_n_6819886.html
http://dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=142665
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Petition created on April 19, 2015