http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/knau/local-knau-917020.mp3
Phoenix, AZ – Goddard said Arizona will never recover economically until the
state commits to public education. He said that includes not just
more aid to schools but restoring state funding for full-day
kindergarten, a victim of the last round of budget cuts. Goddard
acknowledged that means more tax dollars. He said if Arizona
imposed its sales tax on every transaction it could raise $10
billion a year. Pressed for what he would tax, Goddard came up
with just two: Country club memberships and -- quote -- some
repairs.
(We have to take a hard look at the entire revenue system for the
state in the recognition that our state public education
obligation is something that we have been fundamentally failing
at for way, way too long.)
He did criticize the law which lets individuals and corporations
divert some of what they owe in state income taxes to instead
provide scholarships for students to attend private and parochial
schools. Goddard said it's not a bad idea.
(But at a time when we have classroom sizes approaching 40, and
sometimes exceeding 40, when we have school districts such as the
one where my son goes to school that have playgrounds without
equipment and virtually no shade in the summer heat, we need to
put our first dollars into public school systems.)
For Arizona Public Radio this is Howard Fischer