Proposition 123 (2016)

The Arizona GOP war on public education: Fitz on the Voucher Vultures

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Sometimes political satire is far more effective than straight news, especially when it is grounded upon the truth. David Fitzsimmons’ column today at the Arizona Daily Star is a classic. Fitz: Vouchers and vultures circle over our public education:

The governor’s chief of staff, Kirk Adams, handed Doug Ducey the numbers. “Governor, I’m proud to say we have the worst-funded public education system in the United States. We’re behind Mississippi and Albania.” Adams beamed. “And wherever Borat was from.”

The governor was animated. “Really, Adams? That’s fantastic. The question is, can we top that? Be creative! Ask yourself, ‘Can we do worse?’”

Vutures

“Well, we have an idea brewing in the Legislature. What would happen if we expanded our vouchers scheme statewide to include everyone? It’s a great public education killer.”

“How does it work?”

“We’re going to siphon off public school funds to subsidize private schools.”

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Resist the Arizona GOP’s war on public education

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It-is-better-to-die-on-your-feet-than-to-live-on-your-kneesFollow up to an earlier post, Arizona GOP renews its war on public education . . . who will resist them?

On Monday, the Tea-Publican controlled Senate passed SB 1279,  a bill to expand the Empowerment Scholarship Account program to all students in Arizona, on a nearly party-line vote.

Howard Fischer reported, AZ Senate plan allows school vouchers for all students:

State senators voted Monday to do what opponents have argued has been their agenda all along — allow every one of the more than 1 million students in Arizona the opportunity to attend private and parochial schools with tax dollars.

The 17-13 vote starts the process of removing the restrictions that now exist for vouchers, restrictions that to date limit enrollment in the program to no more than 5,500 students. Current law makes these “empowerment scholarship accounts” available only to students with special needs, those living on reservations and youngsters in schools rated D or F.

By the 2018 school year, all restrictions would be gone. And the following year, the numerical cap on vouchers, currently 0.5 percent of all students in public schools, self-destructs.

The only restriction that would be left is that a student first has to attend a public school. But that need not be for more than 100 days. And it could be in kindergarten.

The Tea-Publican controlled House had been scheduled to vote on an identical bill, HB 2482, on Wednesday, but that bill was pulled from a vote and retained on the calendar. House delays debate on vouchers for all school students.

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Arizona GOP renews its war on public education . . . who will resist them?

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It-is-better-to-die-on-your-feet-than-to-live-on-your-knees“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.” — Emiliano Zapata

For Arizona’s “education leaders” who signed the letters of surrender to Arizona’s lawless Tea-Publican legislature on Prop. 123, this is what you get for your cowardly surrender — they will take away everything else from you now that you have laid down your arms and promised not to fight.

The “We hate Tucson and TUSD” Tea-Publicans in the Arizona legislature are taking away money from school districts this afternoon. House to debate bill taking $200 million from K12 schools:

The House plans to debate a measure that would take more than $200 million a year from school districts that receive funding to provide an equal opportunity education to minority students.

The proposal by Rep. Vince Leach of Tucson would dismantle desegregation funding for 18 school districts over five to 10 years.

Decades ago the federal government ordered 19 school districts to end racial discrimination practices and allowed them to levy higher local property taxes to pay for the changes.

Advocates say the funding is outdated and creates an unfair system that favors some school districts over others.

Opponents say Arizona’s education system is already underfunded and a further reduction would devastate districts that receive the funds.

The House plans to debate House Bill 2401 on Tuesday afternoon.

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The GOP war on public education in the state courts

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education_appleLike Arizona’s lawless Tea-Publican legislature, several state legislatures have been in court for their failure to adequately fund public education as required by their state constitutions.

For example, last August the Washington state Supreme Court held the state legislature in contempt for failure to adequately fund public education, and imposed a $100,000 per day fine to compel the legislature to comply with the law and the Court’s order. The Washington Post reported, A perfect education storm in Washington state:

The state legislature is racking up fines of $100,000 a day since the Washington State Supreme Court ruled on Aug. 13, 2015, that lawmakers have not been adequately funding public schools. Lawmakers were ordered in 2012 to fully fund education but have failed to do so, and the justices got tired of it, ordering up the hefty fines.  As the The Seattle Times reported:

Despite a record-setting 176-day session and a two-year budget agreement that pushed substantial new money into the K-12 system, the court said lawmakers had again failed to live up to what the state constitution calls the state’s “paramount” duty — amply funding schools.

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