opinion

Budget deal deepens cuts to higher ed

Gov. Doug Ducey and GOP leaders in the Legislature have reached a deal on the budget.

It calls for:

-- Boosting cuts to universities to $107 million, from Ducey's proposed $75 million. (Payback to ASU President Michael Crow?)

-- Eliminating all state funding for community colleges in Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties – a cut that amounts to nearly $20 million - and a doubling of proposed cuts to the rest of them.

-- Adding $74 million to base funding of schools, despite a court order that calls for five times that.

-- Spending $24 million for 1,000 new private-prison beds -- a drop from $100 million for 3,000 beds in Ducey's original plan.

Nice to see that public education is such a priority. No doubt, all those businesses considering moving here are watching.

The question, of course is this: can leadership deliver 16 votes in the Senate and 31 in the House? Will the more moderate Republicans make a stand for public schools? I'll be watching Sens. Adam Driggs of Phoenix, Bob Worsley of Mesa, Jeff Dial of Chandler and Steve Pierce of Prescott in particular.

As for higher ed, I do wonder at what point the state is going to find itself in court over that state constitutional provision that says Arizona must provide a higher education that is "as nearly free as possible." Ducey's original $75 million cut was a 10 percent cut to state funding in a university system that already has seen its per-student funding cut in half since the Great Recession, given enrollment gains and state budget cuts. Now, it's a 14 percent cut.

This, in a state that has had the nation's deepest funding cuts to higher education in recent years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Priorities, people...