In some states, school districts are saying they can’t afford the raises they promised teachers and may have to lay off staff and increase class sizes to compensate for the salary increases.

That makes sense, right? Teachers may be underpaid, but we have to be realistic. We just can’t afford to pay them what they deserve. Right?

Increasing access to early childhood education in Pima County is receiving overwhelming support from individuals, business groups, educators and nonprofit organizations. But Pima County says it doesn’t have the money to start the ball rolling.

That makes sense, right? The county would benefit in the short and the long term from having more children receive a quality early childhood education. We just can’t afford it. Right?

The legislature is hammering out its 2019-20 budget. It’s almost certain K-12 education will get more money than last year, which was an increase over the year before. But even with the expected increase, the education budget will be lower than pre-recession, 2008 level, and back then, our schools were near the bottom of the country in per-student spending. Most Arizonans agree we should have smaller class sizes, new textbooks and computers, and enough supplies that teachers don’t have to buy things for their classrooms out of their unconscionably small paychecks. But let’s be realistic, folks, the state just doesn’t have enough money.

That makes sense, right? Our students would benefit from a more generous education budget, and the state would have a better educated population which would help attract businesses and build the economy. The only problem is, we just can’t afford it. Right?

Wrong. Wrong. And so goddamned Wrong it makes me furious every time I hear it.

The amount of money in governments’ coffers isn’t a force of nature like the amount of rain that falls every year. It’s created by human decisions. We may not be able to coax more rain from the sky, but we sure as hell can increase the amount of money government has to spend. All we need to do is bring in more tax dollars, and all that takes is the right number of legislators voting “Aye.”

It’s often said that a budget is a moral document. Let’s add to that, the amount of taxes we levy and the way people are taxed are moral decisions. If tax revenues are too low, the budget will lean toward immorality, slighting social programs and education. If the method of taxation favors the rich at the expense of everyone else, that’s both immoral and obscene.

The rich are getting richer, and the one-two punch of lower taxes and ever-more-favorable tax breaks are making them richer still. Meanwhile the rest of the population is in pretty much the same place it was 50 years ago, with shrinking social services and no significant tax relief in sight.

Tax the rich. It’s a simple phrase and a simple, effective way of improving the quantity and quality of government services. The rich will be a smidge less rich, which won’t hurt anything but their neurotic need to amass more money than they or their families can possibly spend. If we make the rich pay their fair share, to paraphrase the man who currently occupies the White House, we can make America a great place for everyone to live.

If, here in Arizona, we increase state taxes on the wealthiest among us, we can pay teachers what they deserve, fix our crumbling school buildings and give our children every possible opportunity to excel. And we’ll still have enough to begin the process of digging ourselves out of the socioeconomic ditch we’ve dug ourselves into.

Let me proclaim, before anyone hurls what they think is a damning insult my way, I am an unrepentant tax-and-spend liberal. More precisely, I’m someone who wants to tax those who can best afford it and spend in ways that are both wise and generous.

For those of you who have drunk deeply of Tea laced with Kool-Aid for the past decade and are fond of proclaiming you are Taxed Enough Already, tax-and-spend liberals like me agree. We’re not coming after your money. We want to tax the people who bought those Taxed Enough Already signs you waved proudly and defiantly at Tea Party rallies. It’s the folks who paid for your movement and fanned the flames of anti-government discontent who aren’t being taxed nearly enough.

This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2019.

12 replies on “I Am Goddamn Sick And Tired of Hearing “We Can’t Afford It””

  1. The wealthy move around so a national standard for taxes will be helpful. Also special interests buy politicians so tax money goes where they want not where it is needed. Voter suppression so as few people as possible vote. see paul weyrich statement on voting. The answer is don’t get angry get even! A conservative free america or at least neutralized should be are goal. We have young AOC’s here in arizona, help them run for office.

  2. The money was available but the waste is intolerable on so many levels. The roads are crumbling and AOC wants to rebuild all buildings. Guys please get real and put down the crack pipe. This is adult type stuff.

    We have 7000 new illegal inhabitants in Tucson taking from the pool of tax dollars and charity.

    Too bad you never prioritized!

  3. Los angeles county is fastest growing county in the country thanks to immigrants.

  5. YO capt if only american men werent so lazy. We need those immigrants for us to retire, especially as they ae willing to work

    Currently,there are 2.8 active workers for each Social Security beneficiary. It will be only 2.2 workers per beneficiary by 2035. And just to throw a little more fuel onto your worry fire, that figure of 2.2 workers per beneficiary assumes that labor force participation rates between now and 2035 will be stable or improved from where we are today.

    But the chart from Larry Summers last weekshowed that there are now 10 million men in America between 24 and 54 who are not in the labor force.
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2017/04/10/is-our-social-security-sustainable-lets-do-the-math/#3d6abdbb3575

  6. David writes, “The amount of money in governments’ coffers isn’t a force of nature like the amount of rain that falls every year. It’s created by human decisions.”

    It’s also created by human confidence levels, David, and confidence levels are, in turn, affected by human behaviors. You know, like those of TUSD administrators. So once again I will urge you and the rest of your increasingly lame Party to get as interested in how the highest per-pupil funding in the county (yes, that’s right; it is in TUSD) gets applied and to what degree those who make the decisions are concerned with STUDENT BENEFIT and the delivery of SOUND EDUCATION rather than some other, less worthy variables they like to manipulate with their budgeting decisions.

  7. Y’all like to haul out how little we pay teachers when it’s time to agitate the electorate. So answer this question, David: what exactly was done with TUSD’s Red for Ed money, money that was recruited from the public with copious stories of teachers working three jobs to pay their bills? Remind us. Did all TUSD’s Red for Ed money go to teacher salary raises, in a district where working conditions are so poor that they have a hard time filling their open positions with fully qualified professionals, where they have been known to deliver instruction in schools serving low-SES neighborhoods through a rotating cast of underpaid, underqualified substitutes? Do tell.

    For the record, I do agree that teachers should be paid more. I just don’t agree that your network should keep using that argument without being willing to enforce the right budgeting priorities with the money already allocated.

  8. To what end?

    _____________________________Arizona_________________Connecticut

    Spending
    per student_____________________$7,501____________________$20,800

    Charter School
    Students______________________185,000_____________________10,000

    8th grade math scores
    Demographic

    Black___ _________________________272 ________________________258
    Hispanic _________________________269________________________263
    White ____________________________296 ________________________295
    Asian ____________________________316 ________________________311

    8th grade math Scores by
    Mothers education

    High school dropout _______________265 )______________________259
    High school graduate ______________269 _______________________262
    Some college ______________________285 _______________________274
    College graduate __________________296 _______________________282

    Jobs Created
    Since 2000___________________670,000____________________-14,000

    That difference in spending of $13,000 per student over Connecticuts 500,000 students amounts to $6.5 billion per year. Thats $120 billion over since 2000.

    What has it done for Connecticut? Only damaged their economy.

    Imagine that. In the most powerfully performing economy in the world, Connecticut has lost 14,000 jobs in the last 19 years.

  9. ” … unconscionably small paychecks”

    How do you think the parents feel who are already paying high taxes to support the schools, but have experienced unsatisfactory results in our public schools & felt they needed to try private or parochial schools or even homeschool? Many do this on lower family incomes than starting teachers’ salaries & send the kids to schools where teachers are paid less but do a better job without complaining that they’re unable to support themselves on their income. At least those kids might get better educations in personal finance & be taught by enthusiastic teachers with common sense & love for their jobs.

  10. MMP, Socialist, Democrats, don’t want their tax dollars to pay for charter schools , however they don’t mind if Conservatives, are forced to pay their tax dollars for public in doctrinal education.

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