“WE NEED MORE TIME!”

by David Safier

(TASL) In a predictable move, state legislators are complaining they can’t get the ELL funding together by the court’s March 4 deadline. They say they need more time. (See Meanwhile, in Phoenix… for background.)

You want to talk time? OK, let’s talk time. Sixteen years ago, in 1992, a suit was filed that accused Arizona of underfunding ELL instruction. In 2000, the courts ruled that the state had to do something to fix the problem. Now it’s 2008. It’s been sixteen years since the legislature began fighting the suit in court, and eight years since the legislature and the Supervisor of Education began defying the court order.

I tend to think in analogies, which, I admit, aren’t always fair or accurate. See if you think this fits.

A father is sued for child support of his 6 year old daughter in 1992. He fights in court for 8 years, then stalls another 8 years after the court tells him to pay up. His daughter is now a 22 year old woman who was denied her father’s help the entire time she was growing up. To expand on the analogy, let’s imagine the father has been lovin’ ’em and leavin’ ’em over the years and has a slew of kids he refuses to support.

Sounds about right to me.

Wait, there’s more. Education Supervisor Tom Horne says it should cost $25 million a year to meet the court’s ELL requirement. Here’s how he arrives at the figure. The actual cost, he estimates, is $50 million, but a 2006 state law says that for every dollar the state kicks in for a program, a dollar has to come out of federal funds the schools are already getting for similar programs.

So, add $25 million more from the state to the $25 million already there, and you get $50 million in new money. Voila!

Boy, I wish I could add $50 to the $50 I already spend at the market and come home with $150 worth of groceries. Maybe I’ll give Tom Horne my $100 and let him buy the $150 of food for me.

On the other hand, maybe not. For some reason, I don’t trust the man.

Note: I forgot to mention, you know Horne’s magic trick, where he waves his hands over a pile of money and doubles it by including federal dollars that are already being used? It’s illegal. And I always thought Republicans were the law and order folks.