|
Education
should be a top priority for our state lawmakers
Arizona
consistently gets failing grades when it comes to funding, teacher
pay, and academic performance.
School
spending is on the rise but cumulative SAT scores over the past
10 years “have barely budged, 30 percent of Arizona students don't
graduate from high school, and only about a third of those who
do get diplomas can actually perform college level work,” according
to a 2006 report by The Goldwater Institute, a conservative think‑tank.
The
lobby group for public schools, the Arizona School Boards Association,
on the other hand, reports on their Web site: “Only Utah spends
less per student than Arizona. Two states spend over twice as
much per student as Arizona and sixteen states spend over percent
more per student. The national average per student is 39 percent
more than Arizona spends.”
Our
state lawmakers, both Republican
and Democrat, agree something needs to be done but, like the issue
of illegal immigration, they disagree on what specifically should
be done.
Legislators
on both sides of the political divide are instead preoccupied
with illegal immigration and associated border crimes.
To
be sure, illegal immigration and securing the border needs to
be addressed but that is the federal government’s responsibility,
not Arizona’s responsibility.
Education
needs to be addressed and that is Arizona’s responsibility, not
the federal government’s responsibility.
For
Republicans, the answer is to create a more competitive environment
through school choice which they say will ultimately prompt public
schools to do better.
For
Democrats, the solution is to spend more tax dollars on education
in order to provide more opportunities for students.
Republican
state lawmakers and Democrat Gov. Janet Napolitano have sparred
for years over education funding and her all‑day kindergarten
program.
They
will likely continue to clash but when it comes to setting priorities,
its time our state lawmakers make education a top priority.
|
