Want to help the kids catch up? First, take care of the basics

Arizona’s education system was a mess before the pandemic and now is worse.

There are lots of ideas on how we should fix the problems, but we shouldn’t over-complicate things.

There are very interesting studies and anecdotes of remarkable successes with inspired teachers and dynamic principals and innovative techniques, but none of these are scalable if we fail on the basics.

We need to hire teachers so we have enough to reduce class sizes. We need to fund books, computers, labs, extracurriculars and safe school facilities.

Then you will have the luxury of creative experimentation to make dramatic improvements.

The pandemic robbed our students of time. The obvious answer is to give them the option of another year of school to shore up their weak areas.

Arizona is sitting on a giant surplus and rainy day fund, with more federal help on the way. Let’s do it.

Andrew March, Phoenix