opinion

Valdez: Arizona GOP pits kids against kids

Republican lawmakers are pitting little kids against bigger ones in their continuing effort to avoid following the Constitution, which requires them to levy taxes to pay for K-12 education.

The biggest Republican in the state Senate wants an audit of First Things First, the voter-created program for early childhood education. This is -- Surprise! -- the fund Republican lawmakers want to raid to help pay for their no-new-taxes K-12 funding plan.

Senate President Andy Biggs said in a press release that taxpayers deserve accountability, and that “First Things First says its programs and agency are efficient and successful. The state needs to find out if that’s the case.”

Well, sure. But why now?

First Things First just announced its opposition to the plan by Biggs and House Speaker David Gowen to raid its piggy bank.

Mind you, there have been questions about how First Things First spends its money. It gets about $128 million a year from a tobacco tax approved by voters, and spent about $165 million in the last 12 months on programs around the state, according to the Associated Press.

It also has a $236 million surplus, which could come in handy if it is spending more on programs than it is taking in.

The money could also come in handy as a way for GOP lawmakers to say they are putting money into K-12 education without raising taxes. This is not the first time the GOP tried to get its hands on that money.

In 2010, voters rejected a GOP effort to dismantle the program by a 70-30 margin.

So is this audit about accountability? Or creating doubt about a program that has done far too little to educate the public about its work?

The timing of Biggs' grand stand for accountability – and the GOP’s past lust after the little kids’ money – makes me wonder what this is really about.