This op-ed is more reminiscent of a carefully manicured public relations advertisement than any serious news story. There are links provided in the main body of text that point to another op-ed, which is also cross-linked back to this story, by the regional president of Wells Fargo as well as some mysterious entity called achieve60az that will recommend donations through the nonprofit collegesuccessarizona.org in order to enable the attainment of this goal. Let's just take a break and ruminate on that...state funding cuts to the budget for education have been what I, and many others, would describe as brutal. And the proposed solution, which the governor supports, is to put Arizona's future in the hands of a single mysterious entity in partnership with a non-profit. The words that come to mind are probably not fit for general public discussion.So about that mysterious entity called achieve60az. It appears that the Arizona Department of Revenue does not allow public business record searches. My search included Google and yet I can find nothing of substance outside of their website and various news op-eds touting their cause. I did a little searching on the "dark web" and found where information about this initiative is posted on the Office of Education website. On a side note, I'm not sure what the purpose of the fire department locker room is as the backdrop but it does make for a lot of red. Anyways, being a little familiar with networks in general, checking the DNS records for the website reveals that at least the web side of this alliance is being managed by the Arizona Board of Regents, if not all of it. Seeing as the governor appoints members to this board it becomes evident to me why he would support such an endeavor...watch the left hand, people, pay no attention to the right.
This is interesting given the budget cuts to education in Arizona. Recent rankings differ by organization but between the best and worst reviews I could find, Arizona education rates in the lowest 6% to 18% of all the United States. The Center for Student Achievement reports that Arizona ranks 49th in education funding with a current 31% deficiency compared to the national average of all states. The Education Week report rates Arizona 47th in School Finance, a "D-" on their scale...yes, that is barely passing. The Best States report by U.S. News shows another interesting detail, aside from ranking Arizona 43rd in Education, which is that the percentage of college educated people in Arizona is 36% with a median income for a population of 6.83 million people of $26,678 currently. Yes, those are some interesting statistics to let sink in. On average that equates to an hourly wage of only $12.83 per hour if they only work 40 hours per week AND the percent of college education people in Arizona is reported to be 6% lower in 2017 than what achieve60az reported in 2016, and still reports in 2017. Did a group of graduates move out of state? Doubtful since statistics like this do not tend to be tracked in such a short window of time, in my experience. As with most things economic, there are probably different assumptions being made for which there should be no expectation for clarity up front.On that though, I think we will have to wrap this up for the time being. I don't find any value in this article other than to be on the lookout for another money grab by politicians in alliance with private enterprise. The raid on the state land trust with Prop123 arguably set back the education funding decades and despite the governor's op-ed saying that this money is being allocated to "K-12 education," notice the lack of the word "public" in any of his discourse. There are still public schools being closed due to building maintenance that cannot be afforded. Overrides are an annual request from school districts to cover lack of funding. Teachers are not getting any significant raise any time soon. A recent news report by 12 News reported a suggested 0.4% to 1% raise to teacher salaries, which to be honest is insulting. In the private sector, if I had an employer offer me a 1% raise to stay I would be pursuing other employment opportunities. I say that as a hypothetical but the reality is I have done this in the past with prior employers. If an employer can't afford to compensate their employee properly then it's not a business worth working for and frankly it's probably not a viable business that should be allowed to continue. Of course, the government is there for a purpose and it cannot go away, nor should it. What the government should be doing is taxing businesses more appropriately and ensuring that the state institutions, and the resulting employees, are also funded properly. That is not a short wrap-up, but for the rest I will leave it as a topic for another time perhaps. Take care, everyone.
Hey there Wayne! I must say that your blog is very in-depth and looks like you really did some research! However I would like to add to it with my mother's 30 years experience as a high school educator. She and I agree with your assessment on prop 123, and believes that the money went to create unnecessary jobs at the district level instead of into teachers salaries. It's almost as if our education system has become a bureaucracy, especially at the high school level. During my final year at Greenway High School our principal left for a position at district that was basically created as a assistant's assistant. Yet both her and I think that district has gotten too big to "fix", and the only way to really make a change is if all the teachers in the district just finally said enough and protested. Once again I must say I love the thoroughness of your blog, and hope to see more in the future.
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