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We cannot ignore Arizona’s growing legion of students
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Competing budget proposals released Friday by Gov. Janet Napolitano and the chairmen of the Senate and House Appropriations committees agree on one critical point: Arizona’s budget problems are so serious that the state doesn’t have $417 million to build new schools next year.
Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria, and Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, say the solution is simply don’t try. They want the Legislature to suspend all construction for elementary and high schools through June 2009, and perhaps longer if the state’s fiscal health doesn’t improve.
They hold out the fig leaf that growth in student enrollment appears to be slowing, perhaps because of new state laws related to illegal immigration. We shouldn’t build schools we don’t need. But it’s still likely there will be more students next year than ever before, and school districts are counting on state funds for new buildings to relieve pressure that has been mounting for years.
On the other hand, Napolitano wants to borrow money to keep the construction hammers flying as the state did during the last budget crisis from 2003 to 2006. In the short-term, using bonds or other forms of debt would allow state officials to avoid some budget cuts to other state agencies in light of a $1 billion shortfall.
But Napolitano also supports bonding as a business-like practice. Most companies believe in financing the costs of a project that’s expected to last for decades, instead of draining all of a business’s cash to pay for the project at the time of construction. When it comes to schools, financing shares the burden between today’s taxpayers and future taxpayers who also will benefit from the school 25 to 40 years from now.
Frankly, we don’t understand why many Republican lawmakers are so strongly against school bonds when they will borrow up to the hilt to build new freeways and roads. Both transportation and education are core functions of government under our state constitution, and issuing debt makes it far more likely we will build roads and schools in time to meet demand instead of years too late.
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