LINDA VALDEZ

Valdez: Why Arizona's GOP starves higher ed

Linda Valdez
opinion columnist
Arizona's investment in higher education lags

Arizona developed a bad habit of starving its universities.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Arizona is at the bottom of the list of 15 states that spend less on higher education than they did five years ago.

Our spending is 27 percent below what it was in fiscal 2011. Alabama was next to last, with a 25 percent decrease.

So next time somebody tells you Arizona is the Alabama of the West, you can honestly say: No, we’re not. We’re worse.

Last year, with the recession in the rear-view mirror, Arizona cut $99 million from its three state universities.

Lawmaker: $8 million isn't enough for our universities

That put our state among only nine states that decreased funding over the previous year. Our 14 percent drop was the biggest of the nine, says the Chronicle of Higher Education.

This year, with the state expected to have a $621 million surplus, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is proposing teensy-weensy $8 million increase in funding for the state’s universities.

In the past eight years, state support for universities fell by nearly half a billion dollars. The state currently pays 34 percent of the cost of in-state students. In 1998, the state paid 88 percent.

The universities had asked for $24 million in the next budget to begin moving toward a 50-50 split.  Ducey’s budget gives them one-third of that.

Meanwhile, university tuition has more than doubled, putting education out of reach for many families.

Instead of making it easier for low- and middle-income kids to pursue higher education, Arizona made it harder.

Yet Arizona’s 37 percent rate of adults with at least an associate’s degree lags the national average of 40 percent.

Governor: Arizona schools win big in my budget

“Arizona’s relatively low education levels indicate that our workforce will not be prepared to meet the needs of employers in an economy that increasingly relies on skilled workers. . . . meaning that businesses in Arizona often struggle to find the skilled workers they need,” according to a study commissioned by College Success Arizona.

Meaning businesses that require a skilled workforce will go elsewhere.

The study found that 1 in four adults in Arizona has a bachelor’s degree, but among Arizona’s fast-growing Latino population, that falls to only 1 in every 10 adults.

Minority students complete university degrees at lower rates than White students in Arizona. Closing that gap in college graduation rates would bring large economic gains to the state, according to the College Success Arizona study.

Closing the gap should be a state priority -- loudly discussed and vigorously pursued.

But Arizona’s ruling Republican Party has little to say about Latinos – aside from the usual demonizing aimed at the tiny fraction of the Latino population that is undocumented.

That’s another self-destructive Arizona habit.