Episode 13: The Fourth R: Reductions

Reading and writing are still on the curriculum, but for Arizona public schools this week, it's all about arithmetic.

Specifically, subtraction, as school officials begin figuring out how they will teach more than 1 million public school children in Arizona with big funding reductions.

"We're up over $1 billion" in cuts to K-12 education in three years, including the $183 million in the budget that Gov. Jan Brewer signed this week for the 2011-12 fiscal year, said Chuck Essigs, director of governmental relations for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials. He was interviewed for Friday's Arizona Week.

Essigs, who counsels school districts on funding and finance and who lobbies elected officials by providing information on school finance, credited Brewer with keeping the cuts from being even bigger.

"It was disappointing to school district officials, but in reference to the governor, without her, the cuts would have been even higher," he said. "The Senate budget that came out in contrast to the governor's budget probably had cuts of $240-$250 million. So without the governor's standing for smaller cuts, we would be in a lot worse shape."

Essigs also gave Brewer credit for leading the campaign last year for passage of Proposition 100, which increased the sales tax by one cent, with all proceeds going to education. Without that, he said, the cuts could have been another $1 billion greater.

But another school official was critical of the big cuts in the face of Proposition 100's approval.

"The No. 1 thing that people said to me was, 'We're afraid of voting for this because the Legislature's just going to take that money and spend it somewhere else,'" Vail School Superintendent Calvin Baker said, also in an interview for Arizona Week. "I said no they won't do that. They'll protect education if you make a strong statement that education is important.

"But unfortunately that's not what happened. Taxpayers legitimately can say that they were subject in some way to a bait and switch. They passed a tax increase to protect education, and education was slashed."

Essigs said he expects to see more school closures and reductions in staff as a result of the cuts, because 85 percent of school budgets are payroll. Look for bigger class sizes, among other effects, Essigs said.

Vail School Superintendent Calvin Baker says Arizona taxpayers were cheated.

AZPM Staff

Baker said that in his district, no decisions have been made about layoffs. But he acknowledged that there is little else to cut except payroll. His district already added five students to every classroom last year under the previous round of cuts, Baker said.

One cut that caught Baker off guard was the reduction in funding for Pima County's Joint Technological Education District, or JTED. The Legislature eliminated the vocational education program for high school freshmen.

"The huge cut to JTED funding was just a shock," he said. " ... For us, it's going to be well over a quarter-million dollars. This was the bright spot ... in Pima County for growth in CTE, career and technical education. This is just a terrible blow to that forward movement."

Essigs said the educational community has done all it can to try influencing lawmakers, and now it may be up to others. The business community found itself in the same predicament last month, when business leaders coalesced to tell legislators that their anti-immigration efforts were hurting Arizona business.

"The education people are kind of ... I think 'stymied' is the right term. We've been making our case and debating it, and obviously we haven't made any ground," he said. "Until the business community says this is bad for business, the way we're funding our education system, we probably can't stand much of a chance to make a change."

Reporter Michael Chihak explores the issue of school budget reductions further on tonight's Arizona Week. Click to watch now.