Foxes guarding the hen house.

Senator Dede Feldman posted an essay on Heath Haussamen's site, link. She suggests a few "principles" to guide the budget cutting knives.

According to Feldman;

• Don't make cuts that will cost people their lives; and yes, some cuts might really have that chilling effect.
• Don't make cuts in areas where there are matching federal funds. Medicaid dollars for example, are matched four to one with Federal dollars.
• Address "combined reporting" which allows out of state corporations to pay taxes in states with lower tax rates, on money they earned in New Mexico. And last but far from least;
• "Salary reductions, if there are to be any, should be done on a sliding scale, not across the board. What sense does it make to cut the meager salary of an educational aide who makes $8 per hour the same percentage as an administrator who makes $100 an hour? Yet, this may be the effect of across-the-board cuts, particularly if it is the administrators who decide how to implement reductions".(emphasis added)

This is precisely what will happen with respect to any cuts that are made in the APS. The cuts will be made by administrators, and if we are to glean anything from past practice, audit dodging and budget hiding, the administration will not suffer in proportion to teachers and teaching assistants.




photo Mark Bralley