Katie Dabney, an administrator in the Vail School District has put herself out there as a proponent of “recruiting” teachers to stay or even come to Arizona through increased compensation.(1) While I laud her courage and foresight, this idea has been presented in Arizona before. Back in 1998 a move was made to increase compensation for teachers to improve recruiting of the best and brightest. Fourteen years later we can see how effective this effort has been and I can predict what effect Ms. Dabney’s plea will have as a consequence.

The Classroom Site Fund was passed in 1998 to try and make Arizona more attractive to teachers, young and old. It provided for a raise in sales tax to increase compensation to teachers in the state. This was supposed to help keep our best teachers and bring more good teachers to Arizona.

Except Arizona does not want good teachers to come to this state.

What Arizona wants is to get out of the business of educating the public. And they are not that keen on higher education either. At least that is the conclusion you must draw if you look at the intent behind many of the proposals of our “Less” – gislature.

In Arizona we believe that education is for those who can afford it and the rest don’t need it. While “readin’, ritin’ an’ ‘rithmetic” might be alright for some, if they can pay for it, in Arizona we see such nonsense for most of our citizens as fluff and waste.

Candidate Rick Santorum has already elucidated for us the direction that education must ultimately lead.

In a Santorum postulated world, education equates with liberalism, socialism and inherent danger to the rights of those 1% who truly deserve to decide for America what course to the future we will plot. Schools promote a desire for further education. Like a gateway drug, further education eventually leads to an addiction to knowledge which can only end badly. These erudition addicts invariably attend a college or university, expecting greater and greater highs of wisdom and ultimately; they become a brainy drain upon society, trapped in a morass of research and learning, snobbish intellectuals all funded on the public dole.

Yes, Rick, we must stamp out the plague that is learning.

That was why I was so surprised when our GoverNOr Brewer (no pun intended) pointed her well-used finger in the direction of Ex-Governor Romney. Santorum seemed a perfect fit for Arizona Republicans. Why would she choose Romney? Then,thinking about it, it became obvious to even the most casual observer: Mitt has more money.

Don’t get me wrong, I like money, such as it is. After all I am a teacher and we all know how financially driven they are. Hence the reason I wasn’t caught off-guard by the new revenue idea presented in our legislature. Under this brilliant plan, all students in Arizona’s colleges, other than those on full-ride scholarships, should pay at least $2000 in tuition every year. As the parents of three children currently attending college I can’t begin to tell you how excited this idea made us, though I am sure some of you can guess.

And the timing couldn’t have been better, the US Census Bureau just announced that college graduation for students getting a baccalaureate is at an all-time high.(2) By the way, Governor Brewer would like them to rebate $2000 for each year they attended school in Arizona. They can make the check out to the Huppenthal for Governor, Super Pac committee.

So, Ms. Dabney, as they say, the beat, and the beating, goes on.

1 http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/tucson-must-offer-competitive-wages-to-retain-best-brightest/article

2 http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/education/cb12-33.html