A few hundred students packed the Tucson High Magnet School auditorium earlier this afternoon for a forum to discuss the effects the state’s $30 million budget cut to joint technical education districts will have at the school and the entire Tucson Unified School District.
Leroy Aaron Fisher, a junior at Tucson High, says the cuts jeopardize his plans of becoming a paramedic, and he has a question for Gov. Doug Ducey: “Why would you do that?”
“I don’t want to sit down and take this,” the 17-year-old said while he waited for the forum to begin. “How can I, as a student, how can we, as a school, combat this?”
Students had originally intended to have a walkout today (Tucson High student Morgan Darby, who spoke at the event, had posted a photo about it on her Instagram). But the school and district decided to meet them half way and host a forum. Fisher still thinks a walkout could intensify the message they have for the governor and lawmakers who continue to cripple the state’s education.
“I am turning 18 very soon and I am going to register to vote and I am not going to vote for (Ducey),” he says.
Get out there and vote as soon as you can—that was also at the core of today’s forum.
“There is a choice, we can all sit and allow the Legislature in Phoenix to continue to fund prisons or to start funding you,” said TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez. “We could also do nothing, be uninformed and sit here and allow big companies that make billions of dollars a year get tax breaks, maybe that money can be redirected toward you. My personal preference is that you are supported, that you are educated, my personal preference for a better Arizona, a better Tucson is for you to take a hold of your state, it is your state, your future and your responsibility, thank you for being here. I want to tell you how many millions of dollars are going to companies for tax breaks, I want to tell you how many millions of dollars are going to prisons.”
Sanchez asked all students who were 18 to raise their hands. “You better be registered. Being informed is half of it, the other half is going out and voting.”
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, who sat at his daughter’s side—TUSD Board President Adelita Grijalva—thanked the students and told them their action is one of the most patriotic things they could do, and that the real ignorants are the ones in power making these cuts.
“To be critical is what is encouraged and needed in this country,” he said.
The budget, (updated after publication, 10: 17 p.m.) which Ducey signed tonight, will take away $330 for every student that enrolls in a career and technical education class at TUSD. In total, TUSD would lose about $1.4 million in support for these classes.
Fisher is one of about 7,750 students in the district who takes advantage of the accounting, bioscience, computer networking, marketing, and several other career and technical classes the district offers. In Tucson High alone, close to 2,600 students are currently enrolled in one, according to Charles McCollum, the interim director of TUSD’s Career and Technical Education.
Thanks to the CTE program, Evelyn Bolaños, also a junior and president of Tucson High’s welding club, can pretty much get a welding job as soon as she graduates high school. She’s taken enough classes to get a certificate.
“These classes make Tucson High a very special school,” she said to the audience. Tucson High students Nathaniel Gallegos, Jessica Gallegos and Nicholas Trujillo also spoke. So did TUSD board member Cam Juarez.
Community colleges and universities were also thrown into the mix—a lot of the teens getting ready to graduate will feel those cuts come fall.
“One of the problems that I have is how selective it was, Pima County and Maricopa County community colleges didn’t receive funding but other counties did,” she said. “What doesn’t make sense is we keep talking about how important it is for you to be career ready and yet the career ready programs were the ones that were cut. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that.”
If these courses are gutted, Fisher says he is considering moving to Washington, where his father lives, because education is “more of a priority there.”
“But I would miss my friends. I love this school so much and I don’t want to see so many amazing classes cut. That is the reason I I come here, because of these classes. To see all these things go away, is really painful.”
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2015.
Save money by cutting the salary of everyone above the Principal. Principals on down earn their money. Cut funds to the illegals..we should not be supporting them at all. Doing both of these things saves a ton of money. Makes no difference who the Gov. is they cannot spend money they don’t have. Money does not grow on trees although I wish it did because I could use some extra.
Cut huge tax breaks for the wealthy. States that do that do well .. How about not funding
private prisons and charter schools? Cutting education and not those doesn’t work . We have been doing the same things for years… one of the most in debt states. You still think it works… definition of insanity.. doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Go kids!!!
Oh and AZ took almost 1.2 billion that voters wanted us to have. I think priorities ought to shift real fast.
These kids don’t know squat about budgets. Keep convincing them that they need to belly up to the government trough.
That serves nobody but the takers. And you know who you are.
These kids don’t know squat about budgets. Keep convincing them that they need to belly up to the government trough.
That serves nobody but the takers. And you know who you are.
how come this same body does not invite the governor out to hear from him instead of fear mongering and hate fueled by Raul the Walrus Grijalva?
Good lord a speech from racist Grigalvas daughter? Stupidity promotes stupidity and nobody promotes it like the grigalva clan. The last person I would want talking to my kids would be someone like this. Don’t you have some place to go to boycott?
Also I’ll bet you 10 to one these kids will never see a ballot in their lives, their to busy texting and playing video games. But what do you expect when they go through a school system like TUSD that cares more for it’s administration then teaching the kids. They would rather cut learning then their over-
paid administrators.
THe youth here know how important a good education is. They have their priorities in the right order. THey know it is appropriate and healthy to protest a government that is working against them. Go kids!! I will be marching for you today!
Are you joking, duceyistheman? Looks like you need an education… “their to” should be “they’re too,” “it’s” should be “its,” and “then” should be “than.” You are a certified moron, and the last person to insult people on the quality of their education. My only hope is that you’re intentionally making mistakes as a joke.
Ah, yes. The “keep them dumb and uninformed” crowd is out in full force.
I love the irony of a person who does not know the difference “their” and “they’re”, “its” and “it’s”, “then” and “than”, and “to” and “too” waxing poetic about “stupidity promotes stupidity”. Yes, “duceyistheman”, I am talking about you.
“rat t”- I agree we should be OUTRAGED that children want to suckle at the teat of government for their education. I’m sure when you were a child you refused such entitlement programs, pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, and educated yourself at home rather than partake at the trough of public education.
Kids, don’t listen to the so-called grownups, follow your hearts, head into the streets; leadership comes on-demand from the unlikeliest places
These kids are amazing. The future is in good hands with these smart and involved young people. If you are frustrated and want to work off some of that negative energy – join http://www.ArizonaStandsUp.com for a March & Rally this Saturday go to http://www.ArizonaSTandsUp.com for more information meet at Tucson High parking lot on Saturday 3/14 at 9:30am. We will march from there to the University of Arizona to the east side of Old Main for a Rally. Bring water and hats – and SIGNS!
jfox I don’t know how old you are but when I was in school the government didn’t run the schools. We had books, pencil and paper to do our homework with. We had good teachers that actually taught math, history, english, science , art and music classes. Our Superintendent of the school system didn’t make the money they do now and they didn’t have to have a building full of people doing everything for them. We had a principal and a vice principal each had a secretary and the principal and vp also filled in as teachers when needed. Interesting how we actually got an education from well paid teachers at the time and the person in charge of the school system didn’t get rich off the job and the school board wasn’t paid more than the teachers.
Trainmanswife is in nostalgia neverland. The school board isn’t paid anything and never was. In TUSD, by Board order, the superintendent was paid 3x the top teacher’s salary. The children came from the close neighborhood, by and large by walking, and many brought their own lunches, often made by their intact family of two parents, one of whom stayed home and volunteered at the school on a regular basis. That world ended about 45 years ago. And it was a function of government to provide the schools. The only alternatives were Catholic or Jewish schools (parochial) or rich kid private schools. Study your actual history, lady, not just what you imagine from the “good old days.”
Also gcb1, if someone went to a Catholic school or other type of private school they paid for wanting something more than the regular public schools. My parents(actually my mother) wanted me to have a Catholic education because she wanted religion in my instruction. I never heard either one of them complain about paying. They knew why we were going to a different school … their choice. They were by and large Republican except for Kennedy’s election.
Dear trainmanswife, who do you think paid for your public school education? Santa? ”Twas the government, whether local, state or federal. Really.
So you’re suggesting that the students and teachers should take care of administrative tasks, like development and fundraising to cover repairs and maintenance, bus drivers, accountants, budget planners, purchasing, school nurses, counselers, etc? Or did you have it in mind to get rid of those altogether. Or do you think professionals will volunteer their time?
Robin B:
RE your comment on Catholic schools: is it your opinion that it is only the children of parents who are in a certain income bracket that should benefit from a Catholic education? Recently, I attended a forum where the superintendent of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Tucson spoke. She said that, from her perspective, broadening access was a social justice issue, and the tax credit program enabled the diocese to serve families that could not otherwise afford to pay tuition at Catholic schools.
You seem to be such a devoted advocate of children’s well-being and of equal access to excellent educational opportunities. Please give us your thoughts on this issue.
Hate the rich, hate the rich. Is that all you guys ever do?
Catholic education didn’t teach you “thou shall not cover thy neighbor’s…..?
Try to put it in play.
Rat T – You are uninformed. Read Rerum Novarum and stop interrupting the prosecution of non-sense.
What we have here is in the ever-chipper “Robin B.” marching in support of increased funding for public education, thinking, no doubt, that she really wants all children to have a good education, and at the same time expressing herself in full support of the fact that before the days of tax credits: “if someone went to a Catholic school or other type of private school they paid for wanting something more than the regular public schools.”
Is she really in support of equalizing opportunity to excellent education? Or is she in fact in support of cutting off access to alternatives to public school for everyone but the rich?
I find her stance interesting — and incoherent.
Yes, we need to increase funding to our public schools, and “in the best of all possible worlds” as Dr. Pangloss would say, all public schools would be excellent. But in THIS world, they are not.
With conditions in TUSD (both in central admin & on the sites) being what they actually are (as opposed to what the uniformly positive and transparently propagandizing Robin B. says they are) the net effect of increasing funding will be that it will be mis-applied; the net effect of ending public support to alternatives will be to imprison poor kids in schools that in many cases are not serving their best interests. That does NOT serve the cause of social justice — quite the reverse.
TUSD will be more deserving of increased funding — and will have an easier time lobbying the legislature and getting voters to pass bonds and overrides — if it can show that it is able to be 100% transparent and accountable in its finances.
TUSD Board: Install an internal auditor that reports to the board. Then organize marches and take your case to the legislature and to the public.
You sound more ignorant than the Governor. Of Course Arizona HAS the money to invest in Education. In the past 8 years, the Republican led state legislature has GIVEN away billions of dollars in corporate tax cuts. Did you know that 2 out of 3 Arizona corporations pay NO state income tax?! Yet those companies enjoy our roads and police/fire protection, our court systems and our schools. All the things that are paid for by income taxes. Im just sick of it. Instead of pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into prisons – the inept Republican led state legislature needs to change draconian sentencing guidelines so that we have fewer prisoners serving time for minor offenses. AND finally – no human being is “ILLEGAL” – they may be undocumented, but we will do better as a society if we educate not discriminate!