Arizona Schools Getting Screwed on Tuesday

Arizona districts and charters operate on an equalization payment that arrives monthly on or around the 15th from the Arizona Department of Education. There has been a lot of fear recently that the state legislature would be irresponsible and do one of two things since those who call the shots are anti-government conservatives: 1) education budgets would be gutted or 2) refuse to protect current funding levels by kicking shortfalls down the road.

Well, the GOP leaders picked the “all of the above option” and as a result, the following memo was issued to schools YESTERDAY at 5:55pm

September 10, 2009

State Fiscal Stabilization Fund FY 2010 Distribution

The recently passed state budget (3rd Special Session Chapter 11 section 14) requires the Arizona Department of Education to reduce basic state aid payments by $472.1 million and replace those funds with federal State Fiscal Stabilization funds (SFSF) as provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) “as soon as possible.” This procedure is consistent with Title XIV of ARRA and follows guidance provided by the U.S. Department of Education regarding the distribution and use of the funds. This distribution will also provide the added benefit of improving the State’s cash flow requirements.

Impact on September 15 Basic State Aid payment

Based on the above law, the Arizona Department of Education will not be distributing any funds on September 15, 2009. In lieu of this payment, each LEA will be awarded SFSF funds in the same amount that they would have received in the apportionment payment.

Application Process

Federal law requires each LEA to complete an application to receive federal funds. The application can be accessed through the Department of Education’s Grants Management System. If you have questions about accessing this system, please contact Richard Valdivia at Richard.Valdivia@azed.gov. Applications will be available as soon as school finance can calculate the September basic state aid payment, which we anticipate will be no later than Monday, September 14 2009.

The application is basically identical to the application LEAs submitted last summer. LEAs will have to identify how they intend to use the funds by object code with a brief description. To complete the application, LEAs will have to make certain federally required assurances that the funds will be expended as required by ARRA and the required accounting and reporting requirements will be met. Applications are due by September 16, 2009.

FAILURE TO APPLY FOR ARRA FUNDS MEANS YOUR DISTRICT WILL NOT RECEIVE FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF YOUR SEPTEMBER BASIC STATE AID PAYMENT.

When completing the application, please make sure that the application amount matches the award amount. Also, please ensure that all requested projects have a completion date within the current fiscal year.

Cash Distributions

Cash will be distributed through the Department of Education’s Grants Management System. As with all other federal grants, cash will be distributed on the first of each month. Therefore, the earliest LEAs can receive funds is October 1, 2009. LEAs that submit applications after September 16 will receive funds on November 1, 2009.

Available Uses

Funds can be used for any activity authorized by the following:

• ESEA (includes Impact Aid)
• IDEA
• AEFLA
• Perkins Act

Funds cannot be used for

• Facility maintenance costs
• Capital costs for stadiums
• Vehicles
• Capital costs for district office space
• Cannot fund aquariums, zoos, golf courses, swimming pools.

While funds can be used for capital improvement projects on schools, any capital project involving an outside vendor is subject to Davis Bacon wage requirements. Further, federal rules require any transactions involving outside vendors to be reported.

Cash Management

Federal cash management laws apply to these funds. Each LEA is responsible for meeting these laws. LEAs may want to use the funds to reimburse prior expenditures if that will help simplify cash management requirements.

Accounting for the Funds

The Auditor General’s Office will be providing guidance outlining how these funds will be accounted for.

For Profit Charter Schools

For profit charter schools are not eligible to receive SFSF dollars and were exempted from the basic state aid reduction. Therefore, for profit charter schools will receive their September 15 basic state aid payment as normal.

Questions

For general questions, please contact John Arnold at jarnold@azsfb.gov.

For questions regarding the application process or the Grants Management System, contact Richard Valdivia at Richard.valdivia@azed.gov.

For questions regarding accounting contact Laura Miller at lmiller@azauditor.gov .

So what does this mean?

Bottom line is schools will not be receiving their monthly payment from the Arizona Department of Education on Tuesday, September 15th.

Finance personnel will have to go through a federal grant application process to request funds through the ARRA (Stimulus). The earliest they can expect funds is October 1st and there are restrictions as to how it can be used.

Since the GOP state legislators in charge waited until the last goddamned minute to decide whether or not education was worth funding (to them, it’s not), schools got a whopping two work-day heads up on this debacle.

September 15th will be a dark day in Arizona. GOP lawmakers who voted to gut Arizona’s education system must pay a heavy political price for it.

[IMPORTANT UPDATE] They flinched. Dept of Ed is now assuring schools that they will receive their payments on the 15th. Goes to show you how arbitrary this all is to them, rather than making the funding of education a bedrock principle.

 

Rally in Phoenix on Saturday to Preserve Education

Craig has two important and related entries over at Random Musings:

Arizona needs YOU now!
Statehood Day

RALLY
FOR EDUCATION

Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009
11 a.m.—1 p.m.

Arizona State Capitol
Governor’s Tower Parking Lot,
1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix

Random Musings

Why is this necessary? Lots of reasons. 1) The craptacular economy 2) the uber-craptacular state legislature in Arizona and 3) lack of a firewall in the form of a Governor (thanks for nothing, Janet!) to veto these neanderthal urges to drown our education system in a bathtub.

Here’s the dire outlook, also relayed by Craig:

A summary of some of the cuts that the state’s universities have implemented (list courtesy Solutions Through Higher Education) –
ASU

Enrollment capped, freshman applications close March 1, five months early

More than 550 staff positions and 200 faculty associate positions eliminated

Ten- to 15-day furloughs for all employees Closing of approximately four dozen academic programs Reduction of administrative operations at Polytechnic and West campuses

A reduction in the number of nursing students the university can admit

NAU

100 positions cut

Suspension of the development of new health professions programs in occupational therapy and physicians assistant, two critical area needs for the state

Closing of the Center for High Altitude Training and Social Research Laboratory Furloughs in FY09-10

Budget reductions for all departments

UA

600 position cuts (through layoffs, attrition and permanent vacancy savings)

5-day furloughs for all local and state-funded employees in FY10

Further consolidation of colleges and mergers of 50 academic and administrative units

Severe curtailment of public outreach programs, including near-closure of public access to Flandrau Science Center, Arizona State Museum, and the UA Mineral Museum

Suspension of significant portions of the UA’s extension and statewide outreach programs

I would gladly have my state taxes raised to keep away the most extreme cuts to these vital programs. Unfortunately, Republican state legislative leaders here don’t believe in the “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” creed by JFK, they’d rather slash and burn educational and social service budgets to the point that all are children is learning throught home schooling and uneligible for werk that payes liveable monie.

Hopefully there’s enough of a showing on Saturday that the GOP rethink this ridiculous long-term strategy…

 

Open Letter to Citizen Tom Horne

This is in response to the June 11, 2007-dated memo (unless they’ve fixed it, the grammar police is issuing a citation) from Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne entitled, “An Open Letter to the Citizens of Tucson” (.pdf warning)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Superintendent Horne:

In your ‘Open Letter to the Citizens of Tucson’, you write in the opening section:

“The citizens of Tucson, of all mainstream political ideologies, would call for the elimination of the Tucson Unified School District’s ethnic studies program if they knew what was happening there. I believe this is true of citizens of all mainstream political ideologies. The purpose of this letter is to bring these facts out into the open. The decision of whether or not to eliminate this program will rest with the citizens of Tucson through their elected school board.”

It’s not lost on me that you have included the word “citizen” four times in your opening salvo – a signal that you are conflating the curriculum of the Tucson Unified School District’s ethnic studies department with the political debate on immigration. It speaks of a gross misunderstanding of the history and culture of the state that you have, regrettably, been elected to represent as the chief administrator of Arizona’s education system.

You and other nativist politicians are working to enact cultural genocide in a country that has a rich and diverse history that is whitewashed in history books. The ethnic studies department at TUSD is an attempt to engage students in critical thinking by expanding their understanding of that incomplete history by studying, celebrating and engaging various cultures that are in our society – some of which are indigenous to this area.

Your pandering screed, which I have no doubt you believe in forcefully, is based in ignorance. You call for the abolishment of a program that you have never visited. What type of administrator forms such an opinion without ever taking so much as a footstep into the classrooms of students who are participating in a program that is successful? An irresponsible one.

I understand, of course, that politics is playing a very large role in your decision to target Mexican-American/Raza Studies – let’s not kid ourselves, that’s what this whole thing is about. You’ve calculated that it is in your best interest to attack our culture as you prepare for a 2010 run for the Arizona Governorship. You’ve bought in to the whole Reconquista myth like a good nativist soldier by exploiting groups that you know nothing about.

You write:

The very name “Raza” is translated as “the race.” On the TUSD website, it says the basic text for this program is “the pedagogy of oppression.” Most of these students’ parents and grandparents came to this country, legally, because this is the land of opportunity. They trust the public schools with their children. Those students should be taught that this is the land of opportunity, and that if they work hard they can achieve their goals. They should not be taught that they are oppressed.

Know this: you are not allowed to define Chicanos or our movement that seeks equality not oppression. No matter how many times you and others repeat that “Raza = Race”, it doesn’t make it true. We understand it to signify “The People”, as in “We, The People” – all of us.

Stop your attempts to label us dissidents of the United States. Our families do work hard, many serve in the armed forces, and there are more than a few of us who have roots in this region that precede the movement of the border between the United States and Mexico. Again, quit conflating indigenous cultural studies with the immigration debate.

As for the claim that “a kind of destructive ethnic chauvinism” is being taught, it should be noted that the TUSD Ethnic Studies Department does not discriminate nor segregate students. They are available to any pupil who wishes to participate. Collectively, TUSD’s African American, Native American, Pan Asian, and Mexican American Studies Departments are successful qualitatively by raising AIMS scores and graduation rates – but as you demonstrated yesterday when you came to Tucson for your anti-Raza press conference – student success is not your main concern.

No wonder Arizona’s education system is ranked 50th in the country – the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is getting a big, fat F on his report card.

Do your job, Mr. Horne, and wake yourself up from the self-created nightmare that Tucson students are being brainwashed. The reality is that they are having their brains engaged, which we all know is a threat to the type of nativism and ignorance you exude.

Atentamente,

A Tucson citizen of mainstream political ideology

 

Thoughts on the Goldwater Institute Analysis

Let’s pick some nits, shall we?

Hispanic support for Republican candidates plummeted by 10 points, to 30 percent from 40 percent, between the 2004 presidential election to the 2006 congressional election debacle, costing the GOP as many as four congressional seats. In next year’s presidential election, Hispanic votes could make the difference in four Western states, including Arizona. If Republicans continue chasing Hispanic voters away, they can kiss their national electoral prospects goodbye.

The best way to reverse the trend is to get the immigration issue behind us as quickly as possible. Hispanic Americans are conservative on most social issues, including immigration, making them a natural constituency, or at least open to voting, for Republicans. But what Hispanics saw in Republicans who made the 2006 elections a referendum on deporting illegal immigrants was a face of hostility.

linkage

I suppose a good starting point is to state the obvious: Latinos are not a monolithic group.

We are as diverse within that umbrella term as the United States itself, if not more. I guarantee you that the politics of a Marielito is nowhere near the same as a Xicano activist in East Los Angeles or a Puertorriqueña in Nueva York – to provide a small example of what I’m talkin’ about.

However. I think there has been some consolidation of sentiments nationally despite our diversity, due to the fierce bickering over immigration reform. Mr. Bolick is right to characterize it as “hostility”. When the headlines ring out regarding the latest workplace raid, we pay attention to those officials who praise the gestapo actions of ICE. After all, the articles usually provide a laundry list of nationalities that were apprehended.

According to John Chakwin, special agent in charge for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 20 of the women who were detained were Mexican, three were Salvadoran, seven were from Honduras and one was from Nicaragua.

linkage

We are also aware that this hostile climate has reinforced a long-standing stereotype among non-Latinos that we are all border-hoppers.

Some neighbors said they hadn’t noticed anything unusual at New Century Roofing.

“We didn’t see anything suspicious, but there’s so many Hispanics that are employed in the labor force that it doesn’t surprise me,” one neighbor said.

linkage

If one can’t see why a statement like that is offensive, especially an elected official, then I suggest a leukotomy stat. Hispanic/Latino/Illegal – they’re all the same. Right?

Going back to the Goldwater Institute analysis, Bolick states:

The best common denominator for Republicans and Hispanics is religion. Two major recent studies found that religion is central to the lives and political beliefs of most Hispanics and that their approach to religion is deeply conservative. Most Hispanics pray at least once a day and attend church at least once a month; nearly half of Hispanic Catholics, twice as many as other Catholics, believe the Bible is the literal word of God.

No, no, no, no and hell no. Can you feel the propaganda waves bouncing off your face from the monitor?

“…their approach to religion is deeply conservative” – Speaking on this from a practicing Catholic point-of-view, it is true that the Church is (regrettably) tracking hard to the right, especially under this current Pope – but if you go to a predominately Latino parish you will see that the social justice/liberation theology wing of Catholicism is alive and well despite the hierarchy’s continued attempts to stamp it out or at least ignore it, hoping it’ll go away. It won’t.

It is troubling to me that the GOP thinks the best way to recover from their electoral woes is to do more illegal meshing of political and religious platforms. Having spirituality (sometimes it’s even within an organized religion, but not always) is, in my opinion, about discovering the best way to live your life within the context of a wider community – the world.

The authoritarian tendencies of the conservative dog-whistle that Bolick is tooting out is not something that will fly – especially if the outcomes threaten our families, educational systems and ability to live our culture unabated. Speaking of education, he goes on to say

Hispanics consistently rank education as one of the top issues of concern but currently favor Democrats on the issue by more than 2-1.

Republicans can change that equation by championing school choice among Hispanic families and voters.

Again – no. What would certainly get the attention of just about every single person in this country is to adequately fund the schools that are already in place. Equalize the ability for a barrio school to provide the same quality of education that you would find in an affluent area. You would get virtually no opposition for advocating that we pay teachers what they are worth, and ending the atrocity that is the No Child Left Behind Act that is straining the entire education system to the breaking point.

Ending his analysis, Bolick writes this:

Hispanic Republicans have won significant offices in Florida, New Mexico, New York and elsewhere. But in Arizona, the GOP seems decidedly unwelcoming: There are few Hispanic Republican officeholders across the state, and even conservative Hispanics cannot win contested primaries against opponents sounding anti-immigration themes.

The reason can be summed up in one word: Minutemen.

At all levels of government, the Republican party has allowed their public faces to be the most rabid of nativists in our midst. The GOP State Chairperson is not only one of the vigilantes, he was also the architect of Proposition 200. Plus, lets not forget that the now-retired JD Hayworth was a huge supporter of the Binocular Brigade. Oh, and how about the State Legislature’s darling conservative Russell Pearce?

And their candidates? Last fall, Randy Graf was out spooking everyone for Halloween with pregnant girls warning against invading hordes of Mexicans while Ron Drake was advocating for the Great Wall of America™.

These are not the voices of moderation. These are not voices who are even making an attempt to understand where the Latino community is coming from on the various issues of the day. It is a group who has chosen to define us in the most negative way possible. Take the Superintendent for Public Instruction, for example, in a Letter to the Editor to the AZRepublic in February:

In a column dated Jan. 29, 2007 “Let’s ditch ’50s mentality,” Republic editorial writer Linda Valdez criticizes me for one of my lawyer’s arguments in the Flores case.

This argument was that Tucson Unified should not be heard claiming that their English-language program suffers from lack of state funds. In fact, they waste huge amounts of the money they do receive on programs like “ethnic studies,” including “Raza” studies. (“La Raza” means “the race.”)

linkage

The discrediting of MEChA is something that the far-right has been trying to do for decades. It is part of a coordinated fear campaign that ties very strongly into the Reconquista myth. XicanoPwr has done the best dissection that I’ve seen on the tubes of how these nativists are trying to stamp out any efforts on our part to keep the indigenous cultura of this area alive.

When the Superintendent of Public Instruction directly targets programs that help equalize the education for young Latinos using macro-propaganda (La Raza means The People, you ignorant fool, as in ‘We, The People’) then policy recommendations from people like Clint Bolick and the Goldwater Institute are frivolous at best. It is just one example of how this campaign of division is no accident.

Nice try, though.

Crossposted at the ePluribus Media Community Site