"Universities, young, face hardest hits." Five simple words that represent two special interest groups that Arizona Legislators don't give a damn about. The phrase is a subhead in an Arizona Republic article about Gov. Jane Hull's latest budget-balancing proposal. The words also sum up the price Arizona's most important citizens have to pay while special interests gorge themselves at the private, all-you-can-eat buffet that state revenue has become.
The Hull (I keep wanting to change the "H" to a "B") plan would cut $39 million from universities and $17 million from the Department of Economic Security. What the university cuts would mean isn't clear at the moment, but the effects won't be what you would call "minimal." The DES cuts would impact, among others, programs for needy children and those with developmental disabilities.
Since nobody seems willing, or able, to lobby for the targets the "Guvnuh" is aiming at, I'm going to state my case on behalf of universities and children.
First off, how can anyone fail to understand the importance of universities to the future of any social group (city, state, or country) that wants to expand and prosper, let alone maintain the status quo? It's not just about the book learning either. Universities are about growing, diversity, idealism, social conscience and self-recognition. None of those things is easy in the best of climates, but when the attitude of state leaders seems to be, "Screw 'em," the lessons take on a bleaker outlook.
We have been bombarded with bad news at all levels of education in this state, not for weeks or months, but for years. From bathroom drains to the "brain drain," the news just worsens. We just had to watch a Nobel Prize go to a former UA professor — one who left because of low pay. Universities are the keys to the immediate future for current and soon-to-be students, and they are the distant future for today's toddlers.
Of course, if those toddlers happen to live in Arizona and have special needs, they may not have a distant future. In Hull's future, there will be less child support enforcement, fewer programs for children's health and welfare and fewer facilities for children with developmental disabilities. Indigent, ill, or even illegal, our children are still innocent and important.
It would be nice to use some kind of analogy here. Analogies are often effective at putting things in perspective, in helping us comprehend the scope of a situation. But this plan seems so blatantly absurd that any comparison would only lessen the severity of the absurdity we see here.
You want to say they're the gas and oil of the social engine? Trivial. Maybe something like, "Our universities and our children are the oxygen without which the social animal cannot breathe." True, but pretentious.
Even some of the more enlightened corporations have contributed to this debate. Arizona executives have said publicly that our economic future depends on stopping the brain drain and expanding educational opportunities in the state.
Here's a novel idea: raise corporate taxes 5 percent. If the economic engine needs educated engineers, let some of its profits go to ensure that the engineers of the future are taken care of today.
I'm sure Hull doesn't really want to hurt anyone with her budget plan. In fact, her spokesman, James Ahlers, was quoted as saying, "She has done the best she could without impacting education, health and public safety."
Thanks, Governor. For a minute there, we thought you were going to hit us even harder.
Terry Moore is a Graduate student in English. Reach him at limerick@asu.edu.
