It’s about kids, not jobs

Next time you see Gov. Jan Brewer or one of her Republican cronies at the state Legislature, say “thank you” for shoving our children into the depths of ignorance.

Thank them for the $130 million they cut from elementary and high schools over the next five months, likely putting Arizona in last place among all other states for school spending.

In the name of balancing the budget, they have done a hatchet job on education and other discretionary funds that are more along party lines than anything that resembles fiscal or social responsibility.

The fact that they’re swinging machetes like they just broke out of a jungle hoosegow before receiving a dime of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money says it’s more about the new sheriff in town flexing muscles.

On Friday in Tucson, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said, “The Arizona Legislature is making disproportionate cuts on the backs of Arizona’s children. Our state leaders should �- worry about how to end this recession while helping constituents and their families, not find ways to revive tired election-year arguments.”

Locally, Superintendent Shawn McCollough called $658,364 in state cuts to the Nogales Unified School District No. 1, a “monumental blow.” He and the NUSD board need our support in making the tough decisions. Now is the time to eliminate practices that don’t result in the best return on our tax dollars and benefit for our students.

At a meeting last month, board member Hector Arana said, “We have been accustomed to doing things the way they ought not be done. It’s going to be the proof in the pudding if we can change our habits to save jobs.”

We say perhaps some of those jobs don’t need saving. This school year alone, enrollment has dropped by 122 students. In the past five years, enrollment has declined by about 500 students, costing the district more than $2 million in funding. Why is it that staff levels have not gone down?

The NUSD culture has been to transfer employees who can’t cut the mustard, including administrators, to other positions and absorb others who came on board originally on contract and whose contracts have long-ago expired.

NUSD is not an employment agency nor is it welfare for the inept. Let’s put some of that money back into the classrooms and dump the dead weight. No time is better than now.

(Write us at 268 W. View Point Dr. Nogales, Ariz., 85621 or editorial@nogalesinternational.com.)