Get Tuned In

Concerned by proposed state budget cuts to K-12 education, about 135 people hungry for answers flocked to a District 30 Town Hall meeting last week with state Rep. Frank Antenori.

Parents, staff and students from local school districts on May 7 filled the meeting room of the Kirk-Bear Canyon Library, 8959 E. Tanque Verde Road, for the discussion with Antenori, a Republican, who represents Legislative District 30.

The district includes Tucson’s far East and Northeast Sides, Vail, Mount Lemmon, Sahuarita, Green Valley, Sonoita and parts of Santa Cruz and Cochise counties.

Two parents — Jen Peebles and Amy Zuckerman — organized the town hall, working with the parent-based advocacy group Voices for Education.

“Obviously with the economy there are significant budget issues, deficits and problems,” said Peebles, who has a second-grader in the Tucson Unified School District’s Fruchthendler Elementary School, 7470 E. Cloud Road, and a preschooler who will start kindergarten at the school next year.

“These cuts are enormous and we needed to pay attention so I took it upon myself to get more involved and get parents organized, informed and involved,” Peebles said.

Meeting attendees volleyed questions and comments at Antenori, while Voices for Education Executive Director Robin Hiller moderated the meeting. Many were concerned about the potential impact of cutting funds to K-12 education in Arizona and cited Arizona’s consistent rank near the bottom of state spending per student.

The Legislature is doing what it can to pare the cuts to K-12 education, Antenori said.

“If you look at the projections that were released in January and what we’re at now, they’re dramatically lower because we have been trying to keep the cuts to K-12 to an absolute minimum and it is the priority,” he said.

The Legislature now is looking at around $175 million in K-12 cuts, Antenori said during the meeting.

Initially the state’s Joint Legislation Budget Committee proposed cutting K-12 funding by nearly $900 million.

The town hall drew people from the Tucson Unified, Tanque Verde and Vail school districts.

A parent group from TUSD’s Sabino High School, 5000 N. Bowes Road, stood outside the library before the meeting collecting signatures on letters opposing the education budget cuts.

Group members had personal experience with the effects of the proposed cuts. Sabino sophomore Michael Ridings, 15, is concerned about the proposed cut of his advanced placement history teacher, whom he said is one of the best teachers at the school.

Zuckerman, one of the town hall organizers, has a daughter who will be entering kindergarten in the Tanque Verde Unified School District’s Tanque Verde Elementary School, 2600 N. Fennimore Ave., next year.

“I got involved in public education issues two years ago in hopes that I could try to make a better place for her by the time she got into kindergarten and first grade, and in actuality things have gotten worse,” she said.

Vail School District Superintendent Calvin Baker was among the local school district officials at the town hall.

He was impressed by the number of people who came to the meeting at dinnertime on a Thursday night to show their support for education, their level of passion and how many had done their homework on issues.

“What I take away from tonight is the encouragement that there is a growing groundswell of support for education. Somebody asked the question, ‘Why are we 49th in the country in funding?’ The answer is … because we, the citizens of the state, have allowed that to happen.

“It’s parents, citizens getting involved and speaking out like we saw tonight that’s going to change that,” he said.

Antenori said he hopes that people will understand the seriousness of the Arizona’s financial situation.

“We’re still losing revenue. We’ve lost 189,000 jobs and those are taxpayers, like I said, and shoppers,” he said. Services are down to the bare bones, he said.

“I just hope they understand the gravity. We’re in big trouble as a state. We can come out of this, but everybody’s got to work together to come out of it … You’ve got to find a consensus and a middle ground and come up with the best possible answer and do what you can.”