Pima and Maricopa Community Colleges appear to be greatest beneficiaries; not Yavapai Community College
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has proposed some increased financial aid to Arizona Community Colleges in his budget for the coming fiscal year. He delivered his proposals to the Legislature January 14. Legislators will, of course, debate and tweak the budget requests. Unfortunately, the Blog is unable to discover any significant increase in financial aid coming from the State to Yavapai Community College.
Ducey said he wants to provide $20 million for an expanded aviation program at the 40,000 student Pima Community College. This will double the capacity of the Aviation Technology Center, which trains people for aerospace industry jobs. This would add funds for another 75 students.
He also wants the legislature to provide $5.8 million for Maricopa County Community College District to get more equipment to expand its health-care programs. This will allow it to train more students in medical programs for staffing operating rooms, emergency care, oncology and intensive care units.
Under Ducey’s budget, Universities would receive $21 million to expand their teachers academies, designed to address the teacher shortage by allow education students a free college education if they agreed to teach in Arizona. The academies started in 2017, but never received any funding.
The universities would also get $30 million to put toward health insurance costs and $35 million in one-time operating and capital funds to help support Arizona resident students.
House Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez, D-Yuma said in response to Ducey’s proposals that the state still needs to make up for years of cuts to district schools that have led to a teacher-retention crisis, and restore cuts to community colleges and universities.