I'm glad that someone is finally calling these guys out.
The Arizona Constitution isn't a buffet - you can't pick and choose what part you'd like to support and what you want to ignore. Melvin, Antenori and Gowan have handily ignored many large portions this year-- the part about elected officials not signing oaths (Norquist!), the sections about balancing the budget and not exceeding the $350k debt limit, and their constitutional obligation to ensure that our educational base is supported? Forget it.
I think 'proper maintenance' can be debated, but that line about providing for our schools "development and improvement"? I'd love to see which legislators would take on that argument.
Even conservative groups like ALEC have noted that we are investing less TODAY on our schools than we did in 1986. Our classroom sizes have grown rapidly while the rest of the US has been lowering theirs. Arguing that our lawmakers have been 'developing' and not trying to dismantle our public schools would be a stretch.
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The Arizona Constitution isn't a buffet - you can't pick and choose what part you'd like to support and what you want to ignore. Melvin, Antenori and Gowan have handily ignored many large portions this year-- the part about elected officials not signing oaths (Norquist!), the sections about balancing the budget and not exceeding the $350k debt limit, and their constitutional obligation to ensure that our educational base is supported? Forget it.
I think 'proper maintenance' can be debated, but that line about providing for our schools "development and improvement"? I'd love to see which legislators would take on that argument.
Even conservative groups like ALEC have noted that we are investing less TODAY on our schools than we did in 1986. Our classroom sizes have grown rapidly while the rest of the US has been lowering theirs. Arguing that our lawmakers have been 'developing' and not trying to dismantle our public schools would be a stretch.