Now AZ is dead last on education spending (Tucson: sales, insurance)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just a couple months ago, I wrote about us being pretty far down on the list in terms of spending for kids in schools. But now, we have sunk to the very bottom. TV says 20% decline in funding for education in the past 5 years. How low can we go???
TUCSON - A new report shows Arizona made the deepest cuts to K through 12 education over the past five years, compared to the rest of the country.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released those findings today. Arizona topped the list, dropping its spending per student by 21.8 percent since 2008.
Count me as somebody who fully supports the cuts to education. Schools are important ... but the state needs to entirely eliminate PUBLIC education from its budget, and allow the private sector to take it over just like any other business. Education, after all, is a business just like banking, insurance, or manufacturing. There is no reason to consistently force taxpayers to contribute to a failing system, and for parents to keep getting a free ride. Privatize it and make the parents finance their own kids' education, instead of the taxpayers. There have been many studies showing that private schools are far superior to public schools in just about every aspect ... so it only makes sense to remove the government from education.
I am also against Prop 204. If it passes, it will push Arizona to second place as far as tax rates ... and that can be especially difficult for people on fixed incomes to deal with because they will be paying more for their basic essentials. Also, there is absolutely no guarantee that a permanent tax increase will improve the public schools. We have evidence of this from the past: in 2000, the largest sales tax increase in state history was approved specifically for education. Twelve years later, we still rank low on the list, and the school system is even more substandard than ever before. Throwing more money at the problem will not solve anything!!!
Count me as somebody who fully supports the cuts to education. Schools are important ... but the state needs to entirely eliminate PUBLIC education from its budget, and allow the private sector to take it over just like any other business. Education, after all, is a business just like banking, insurance, or manufacturing. There is no reason to consistently force taxpayers to contribute to a failing system, and for parents to keep getting a free ride. Privatize it and make the parents finance their own kids' education, instead of the taxpayers. There have been many studies showing that private schools are far superior to public schools in just about every aspect ... so it only makes sense to remove the government from education.
I am also against Prop 204. If it passes, it will push Arizona to second place as far as tax rates ... and that can be especially difficult for people on fixed incomes to deal with because they will be paying more for their basic essentials. Also, there is absolutely no guarantee that a permanent tax increase will improve the public schools. We have evidence of this from the past: in 2000, the largest sales tax increase in state history was approved specifically for education. Twelve years later, we still rank low on the list, and the school system is even more substandard than ever before. Throwing more money at the problem will not solve anything!!!
Source?
And this argument gets so old, I am too tired to hunt down the research. The US will only move forward when we reach a crisis. C’est la vie.
Count me as somebody who fully supports the cuts to education. Schools are important ... but the state needs to entirely eliminate PUBLIC education from its budget, and allow the private sector to take it over just like any other business. Education, after all, is a business just like banking, insurance, or manufacturing. There is no reason to consistently force taxpayers to contribute to a failing system, and for parents to keep getting a free ride. Privatize it and make the parents finance their own kids' education, instead of the taxpayers. There have been many studies showing that private schools are far superior to public schools in just about every aspect ... so it only makes sense to remove the government from education.
I am also against Prop 204. If it passes, it will push Arizona to second place as far as tax rates ... and that can be especially difficult for people on fixed incomes to deal with because they will be paying more for their basic essentials. Also, there is absolutely no guarantee that a permanent tax increase will improve the public schools. We have evidence of this from the past: in 2000, the largest sales tax increase in state history was approved specifically for education. Twelve years later, we still rank low on the list, and the school system is even more substandard than ever before. Throwing more money at the problem will not solve anything!!!
Many studies, source?
Moderator cut: off topic
Last edited by Kimballette; 09-07-2012 at 09:55 PM..
We have a chance to change it. The sales tax for education is on the ballot for November. Unlike the last one that the legislature hijacked to build prisons and give tax cuts to businesses, this one is worded such that the legislature can not misappropriate the money OR reduce the amount of other funding. So it should really result in more funding for education. Whether it pulls us off the bottom, I don't know, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.
The GOP has advocated a voucher system. These vouchers wouldn't be going to rich people...they would go to those who can't afford private education on their own. But I agree with the poster from before. Education is a business...and under government control it will continue to be about as efficient as the MVD or medicare fraud investigations. The free market breeds competitiveness. The best schools will stay in business, the bad schools will go out of business, and competition will drive down prices. This is economics 101...and business grow and advance their product they become more streamlined and able to provide cheaper products....just look at LCD TV's or desktop computers. Just a few years ago those things were 2k...now they are 400 bucks. This will happen with schools as well. Cost will go down under a private system. Just like it would in healthcare if our system wasn't riddled with medicare and medicaid fraud and laws preventing the portability of healthcare across state lines. The public sector's response to everything is, "we need more money." Well...more money hasn't helped in the past, why would it now?
Educating our children is way too important to leave to the government, imo. They've shown a stellar ability to screw up damn near everything they touch...what makes you think education is any different?
Last edited by Kimballette; 09-07-2012 at 09:56 PM..
Not to want to appear "anti-education" here but . . .
If our education system wasn't burdened with the expense of feeding breakfast and lunch to so many students, very possibly there would be more money available for the Three R's.
How many "hungry" students are from homes with refrigerators stocked with beer, expensive hoopties parked outside and/or parents puffing away on cigarettes, not to mention illegal drugs?
Simply put . . . PRIORITIES!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just a couple months ago, I wrote about us being pretty far down on the list in terms of spending for kids in schools. But now, we have sunk to the very bottom. TV says 20% decline in funding for education in the past 5 years. How low can we go???
