A state budget-balancing plan likely to pass the Legislature this week echoes an all-too-familiar tune. It will spell disaster for the education system, ironically possibly making it harder for kids to learn how to spell.
On top of a proposed $380 million cut to K-12 education, if Arizonans fail to pass the one-cent tax on the ballot, education will face an additional $428.6 million blow, which would cause the state to renege on its stimulus dollars agreement with the federal government to not cut education below 2006 levels.
With tuition increases looming, we already know this would create another whirlwind of trouble for the university system. But education starts way before students get to their first ASU 101 class.
The plan — regardless of whether or not the one-cent tax increase passes — proposes to eliminate all-day kindergarten programs. While we might remember finger painting as the main attraction prior to first grade, 5-year-olds’ artistic genius won’t be the only thing affected by these cuts.
According to a study published in the February 2006 edition of the American Journal of Education, “children who experience full-day kindergarten as a whole-school program are advantaged in terms of their cognitive learning.”
Not a hard correlation to make. Children are like sponges, it makes sense they benefit from more opportunities at a younger age, not to mention the socialization and listening skills that come from going to all-day kindergarten.
It also makes sense that “full-day kindergarten is the norm in many private schools,” according to the study.
Full-day kindergarten, which was implemented in Arizona in 2006, offers “the opportunity for low-income families to enroll children in a higher quality early education program,” according to the Arizona Department of Education, as well as benefiting the student with “greater school success in later years.”
So why should public school students suffer gaps in their early education because their parents might not make enough money to send them to high-cost private schools?
Cutting opportunities for students in the public school system not only puts them at a disadvantage now, but also later in life.
From an economic standpoint, it makes the state less desirable for companies and families considering the move to Arizona. The education system is already bad. It cannot afford to get worse if the state wants to attract more investors.
For families that are already here, what will they do when the school program they’ve relied on is pulled out from under them? How will it affect their personal economic downturn? And what about the teachers whose livelihoods depend on their hours teaching kindergarteners?
Should they join the ranks of those searching for jobs?
Even if they don’t care to listen to the humble opinion of The State Press, the Legislature and the Appropriations Committee should at least take the time to listen to their constituents.
More than 300 people came to voice their “no” support on the variety of appropriation bills Tuesday. All of them passed the committee.
Apparently listening is something some legislators failed to learn at any age.
