Fight the power...

"Fight the power!" those were the words uttered by my five year old nephew last night. He has no idea what those words mean, but was willing to support me. I was on my way to the Arizona State Capital to voice my concern over proposed budget cuts.
The state of Arizona is currently in a major budget crisis because of the recession. Plain and simple, we are spending more than we are taking into the budget. A certain group of Republican lawmakers have proposed a budget which would drastically cut spending in public education. You may not think this is important, but consider this: The state gives districts roughly $5000 per student in our classrooms. Compare this figure to eastern states which spend $15,000 per student. We rank 49th in the nation! Shameful! With these cuts we will be spending even less, averaging a cut of $1000 per student. What difference does this make you ask? Well, this will increase class sizes, cut the amount of money we can spend on textbooks, and put 1000's of people out of work. In Winslow alone, the district is planning on cutting 2.6 million from the budget to balance it which will be jobs, textbooks, supplies, music, the arts, p.e., sports. In other parts of the state that is all day kindergarten. How is this possible you ask? Apparently they are not willing to listen to other ideas.
A short research was done by the superintendent of Florence Public Schools. He found that if we instituted a .01 cent sales tax the state could generate over A BILLION DOLLARS a year!!! How much is that for you? An accountant stated that for the average family of four it would increase your taxes at a mere $12 a month. That is less than it would cost to take your family to a dinner at Micky D's! And it's an investment in the future.
Other proposed cuts are the Kids Care insurance program. This program provides insurance for families throughout the state at a minimal fee to the families. My brother who works for the WUSD and cannot afford the insurance for his family at $400 a month, uses this program. This will be done away with in the proposed cuts.
What can you do! Write, call, email and fax your legislators. I will be posting that information tomorrow. Urge them to look at other ways they can save money! Be willing to pay a little bit more in taxes to insure Arizona children are educated in the best way possible. We are not asking for a raise or increase, we just want to keep what we have! Please fight the power and become involved!
Check out this article! It says it much better than I ever could!
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/01/25/20090125edprotest0126.html