by David Safier
As I posted yesterday, Ann-Eve Pedersen and I have created a new half hour cable TV show, Education: The Rest of the Story. What I neglected to mention yesterday is that the wonderful people at Tucson Cable Access supplied the studio and the technical expertise which allowed the project to go forward. Special credit and thanks to Carolyn Brown who suggested the idea to us and did the title and editing work. The show airs Thursdays at 4:30pm on Cox channel 20 or Comcast channel 74. It's divided into 10 minute segments which I'm posting individually on BfA.
Yesterday I posted a 10 minute segment debunking the myth that our public schools are failing. Today's 10 minute segment is about Arizona's education budget which is still in limbo at this moment, along with the rest of the state budget and the Medicaid expansion. Ann-Eve begins with a 5 minute primer on the state of school financing in education, a subject she knows as well as anyone in the state. She headed the Arizona Education Parent Network that spearheaded Prop 204, which would have guaranteed increased funding for our schools. It was opposed by a well financed negative campaign and lost at the polls.
According to Ann-Eve, the reason we're near the bottom of the states in dollars spent per student isn't lack of funds. "There is a hostility toward funding education in Arizona."
You can watch the video below the fold.