Here’s what Sylvia Allen doesn’t get about our schools

The head of the Senate Education Committee wants to know why all you greedy public-school parents think we need to spend more on your kids’ education. “When is it ever enough?” Sen. Sylvia Allen asks in a column published last week in The Arizona Republic.

Is it not enough, she reasons, that we spend nearly half of the state’s $9.65 billion budget on K-12 education?

Or, put another way: Is it not enough that we beat out Idaho and Utah when it comes to our investment in public schools?

To read Allen’s piece, you’d think Arizona is providing an exceptional public-school experience.

“Republicans at the Legislature are committing to smarter spending, supporting innovative teaching methods and providing a variety of available education platforms,” she writes. “We’re seeing results from our efforts. Test scores are improving, especially in our minority population. Families continue to have more options for an excellent education.”

By that, I’m guessing she means more options for a private-school education. That’s where this Legislature is headed: diverting more and more public money to private schools, which ultimately will result in two separate school systems.

One for the haves, who can take that public money and run to the nearest private school, and one for the havenots, who will be stuck in a substandard, underfunded public system. A few facts, Sen. Allen. Arizona now spends $3,360 less per student than the national average when it comes to funding schools, according to a recent state audit. There is $9,136 available to educate an Arizona child, while kids in other states, on average, rate an investment of $12,496.

We rank 48th among all states in our financial commitment to schools.

When is it ever enough, you ask? Perhaps when we can aspire to providing Arizona’s children with an average commitment to their education.

Where do we find the funds, you ask?

“Do we let our roads continue to deteriorate?” she asks. “Should we let sex offenders out of prison? Should we reverse our efforts in spending millions more on child safety? More and more spending on K-12 isn’t such an easy answer when you have to look at all the ways we spend your money.”

Not to mention all the ways you’ve given it away, Sen. Allen.

I’m going to hazard a guess that we don’t need to let sex offenders out of prison in order to educate our kids.

Instead, perhaps a good place to start might be by reversing course after two decades of cutting taxes to the tune of several billion dollars.

If 44 percent of the state budget is devoted to K-12 education, it’s not because schools have gone hog wild in their spending. It’s because the Legislature has slashed taxes and thus the size of the overall budget.

The state expects to take in $454