Arizona don’t need no book learnin’
It was probably not a good sign when the email from ASU President Michael Crow — subject line "Proposed budget cuts and the future of Arizona" — landed in my spam folder. Of course, this was not an email from Crow's private address, but a mass mailing to Arizona State University alumni and supporters. Still, not a good omen.
The Kookocracy is now in charge, from the governor's office right down to Arpaio's gulag lite. Whatever the budget situation, their antipathy to education, especially those "socialist professors," is well known. While Janet Napolitano was governor, their worst tendencies were constrained. Now the extreme reactionaries have total power and the excuse of a budget deficit. They want to slash $600 million from Arizona universities, singling out higher ed to take the biggest hit from state cutbacks.
Crow is not overstating the stakes when he says the cuts threaten to give Arizona a "Third World education and economic infrastructure." Yet despite an emotional backlash against the Regents, I wonder if the extremist juggernaut can be stopped. Even without the further cuts, the damage is deep — and couldn't come at a worse time.
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