State budget time is drawing near, and since a budget is a statement of the values of those who create it, we’ll learn once again what Gov. Ducey, the Republican legislative leadership and the vast majority of Republican legislators value.

When I was on The Buckmaster Show Wednesday, I said, “Republicans don’t care about kids.” I wasn’t referring to their own kids, of course—they may be wonderful parents—or the kids of people like them, who they also may like just fine. When you control the purse strings, you demonstrate how much you care about children by your actions toward other people’s children, and when it comes to that, well, our Republicans in power don’t care about kids. So I think we’re going to have another one of those draconian, anti-education, anti-social-services, pro-tax-cuts budgets we’ve seen lately.

Let’s take a look back at some statements made by Republicans which show the kind of values that shape their budget.

Doug Ducey says he thinks early childhood education is really, really important.

“Research shows that a quality early childhood education experience can yield significant long-term benefits on overall development of a child.”

So he thinks we should invest in early childhood education, right? Wrong.

“We know that there’s a good return on investment,” he said. But Ducey said people need to recognize the state’s financial condition.

To recap: Early childhood education is good for the long-term development of the child, and it’s a good investment for the state, but Ducey won’t fund it because we can’t afford to do what’s best for children and the future of Arizona.

Ducey is also a strong supporter of JTED.

“JTEDs and technical training is critical to the future of our state, and it will continue to be critical to the future of our state,” Ducey said.

But Ducey advocated for last year’s $30 million cut to the program, saying:

“We had to do what had to be done in this budget session.”

Did we really have to do that, cut $30 million from JTED? Apparently not, because the legislature put the money back this session. The money was always there, but Ducey and the Republican leadership didn’t want to spend it on our youth even though Ducey admitted the program “is critical to the future of our state.”

And then, of course, there’s KidsCare, the program that provides health care services for children in families that make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford medical care. Every state but Arizona provides coverage for those children. Senate President Andy Biggs is blocking the bill because, though it won’t cost the state any money in the short term, at one point the state will have to contribute to the program, and then it’ll be too late to kill it.

“I think it’s oversimplistic to say we’ll just put a trigger on this and it stops,” Biggs said on “Horizon.” “It won’t just stop, because you have created a constituency.”

For Biggs, when it comes to children, cutting the budget is more important than caring for their health.

Ducey hasn’t taken a stand on the issue, at least not in so many words. He said,

“What we want is to make sure we are investing in our kids, we’re protecting them and we have a structurally balanced budget.”

Of course, Ducey plans to continue to cut corporate taxes, which, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, will lower corporate tax collections from the 2007 level of $986 million, to a 2019 level of $298 million. And there’s no way you can cut corporate taxes by almost $700 million a year and and invest in our kids them while maintaining a structurally balanced budget. So tough luck, kids. Low taxes for Ducey’s rich friends come first.

This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2016.

14 replies on “Arizona Republican Leaders Don’t Care About Kids: In Their Own Words”

  2. Open border liberals don’t care about American kids – only children of illegals they can exploit for cheap labor. Even when they know that 80% of the females illegally crossing are raped.

    Analysis of the latest Census data indicates that Arizona’s illegal immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers about $1.3 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Even if the estimated tax contributions of illegal immigrant workers are subtracted, net outlays still amount to more than $1 bil- lion per year. The annual fiscal burden borne by Arizonans amounts to more than $700 per household headed by a native-born resident.

    http://www.fairus.org/site/DocServer/azcosts2.pdf

  4. Today, most intelligent people realize that what they say, whether online or in the media is virtually instantaneous and available for fact-checking and truthfulness. Obviously, the governor and his like-minded party boys are still living in their version of the good old days – no civil rights, no women’s rights and people of “color” working in the fields – when they could talk out of both sides of their mouths to whatever audience they pleased without fear of having their duplicity coming back to bite them. Hopefully, the voters will remember this during the next election, unless they “fix” that one too.

  5. When did it become the government’s responsibility to raise people’s kids? The only people who really care about kids are their parents and immediate family. It’s always been that way and always will.
    It’s a matter for voters whether government should provide taxpayer-funded school and daycare.
    Also as long as taxpayers are force to educate illegal immigrants’ children, school funding is going to be hard to come by.

  6. Head Start has been a failure. No studies have shown long term or lasting gains in academic performance with Head Start. In my opinion, the left wing infatuation with early childhood education has much more to do with perceived benefits to to working mothers who the Democratic party avidly courts.

  7. The factoid that is missing in David’s article is the fact that 2/3rds of our legislature including Biggsie and Lil Deb (Lesko) are members of ALEC the Koch founded and corporate funded special interest lobby group that works to defund education, build private prisons and reduce taxes for corporations. The defunding education is a prime tenet of their agenda. So….check your legislators, are they members of ALEC? Then vote them out.
    And…by the way Frank Stagg: Head Start is a success based on an unbiased HHS study completed in 2010. You might argue that is it cost effective? I don’t know, but the program is successful

  8. Jake is right on target in saying ‘they take care of their own kids.’ Last school year the ice cream man had two sons at Brophy Prep where tuition was $15,000….. each, not for two. Nothing wrong with sending one’s kids to a pricey prep school; what’s wrong is unwillingness to adequately fund the public schools most Arizona kids attend. The best aspect of this story is that the Ducey boys may bring home some of the social justice teaching espoused by the Jesuits and their associates at Brophy.

  9. Once again I will say it until it sinks in. First; don’t blame our Legislature for the fact that they are paid zombies. Blame the illogical and undereducated people of this State who continue to vote for these cretins . HOW ignorant does one have to be to realize that the Legislature has for years now voted against the priorities and interests of the vast majority of people who live in this State? Second; this Legislature is to lazy and void of ideas to come up with anything approaching a “progressive”, pro Arizona agenda. EWvery law that has been passed in this State which has uniformly been against the best interests of the people and the education of our kids has been written by ALEC and not just for Arizona but for each of the 31 States where Republicans hold power in their governors and their legislatures. The anti people ALEC agenda is wholly supported by the Koch Brothers and other BIG OIL interests. Until people wake up and realize that basically “dark money carpetbaggers” are actually running this State and until they realize that their elected officials are well paid puppets of Koch; nothing will change. I can understand Legislartors selling their conscience to the highest bidders. What’s the excuse for Arizonas voters and electorate?

  12. I have been saying for years the Republicans hate kids, only the unborn, since they are against abortion, but once kids are born. They are on their own, for education, healthcare, food, etc. The Republicans hate educated kids. They prefer to keep them dumb, as their slaves, non thinkers. That is how they won elections. Why keep bringing up illegals, that is just speaking points for Republicans and allows them to do nothing.
    And when a criminal Republican gets caught, they want to suppress freedom of the press, like the Senate speaker tried to do.
    Lets get smart people and elect those that support kids, education, jobs, healthcare, security, Vote for a democrat. Thus far that is the best choice.

  13. I’m sorry. I forgot to take my meds and I slipped into my asshole persona for a bit. I shouldn’t fixate on the rape that occurs in any culture.

    Rape is NEVER a woman’s fault. Don’t forget that. Also, it should never be used as a tool to try and downgrade a group of people who are only trying to improve their quality of life. True dat!

    Sincerely,
    The New and Improved What, Again.

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