Get ready for Brewer’s “Arizona Ready” education plans

by David Safier

Brewer's Four Corners of Reform statement is a doozy on all kinds of levels, but I'll level my sights on her K-12 education proposals. They are everything she and Craig Barrett have been making noises about lately: No more funding for education, loss of protections for teachers, a push for more vouchers and charter school funding, and a shift of education funding toward the winners — children from upper middle class and rich families — and away from the losers — children of the poor and middle class.

Brewer guarantees Prop. 100's one cent sales tax will end, and she doesn't say what, if anything, will replace the funds it generates. But she makes clear, whatever funds there are, they'll be shifted around. Here's her "money" statement — literally.

Whether it is a K-12 school, Community College or University classroom, we can no longer afford to reward institutions for merely finding students to occupy desks for part of the day or part of the year. Instead, we must invest our resources in schools and support the teachers who deliver the results we seek for our children, no matter the educational setting. If we fail to fund the reforms that are needed, we will certainly be asked by the defenders of the status quo to continue to pour more money into a system that is not delivering the results we need or want.

Let's unpack the statement by starting at the end. Brewer warns the "defenders of the status quo" will ask for more education funding. She, on the other hand, will "fund the reforms that are needed" by stealing from some schools and programs and giving to others. The "per student" formula will be abandoned, replaced by money following "reform." Some schools and programs will be fed, and others will be starved.

Expect money to flow in the direction of charters — her main man, Craig Barrett, is the head of BASIS Charter –  and private schools (there are two voucher programs already in operation in Arizona — "Empowerment Accounts" and "Private School Tuition Tax Credits" — while a constitional amendment to make vouchers a done deal by removing the ban on funding religious education and an expansion of the Tuition Tax Credits are both in the works this lege session).

Within district schools, funds will flow to "successful" schools and away from "failing" schools. I expect a few low income schools will get a financial boost for their programs to pretend everything is on the level, but most of the bonus funding will go to the "successful" schools filled with socio-economically "successful" students. No doubt, TUSD will be targeted for a big hit.

Brewer isn't proposing small changes here. This is big, important, dangerous stuff. If she implements her program, everything will be different in Arizona's K-12 education system. We will be on the bleeding edge of the conservative "education reform" movement, whose ultimate goal is to establish a permanent three tier education system funded by the state: a well funded, elite education, a reasonably funded, mid-quality education and an underfunded system of educational holding tanks, crowded factories offering minimal education for the rest of the population.