Poverty is commonly found in inner cities and rural villages, but we have begun to see signs of decay at the fraying edge of many suburbs. No doubt the Great Recession of 2008-2009, with its joblessness and waves of foreclosure notices, has made matters worse. But for the past two decades economists have reported that America’s middle class is shrinking – some earners at the top are gaining wealth while greater numbers of middle-class workers near the bottom slide backwards into poverty.

Part of this phenomenon is an aging population living longer but financially unprepared for retirement. Social Security and Medicare alone will not sustain a middle-class lifestyle.  Another downward pressure has been the failure of wages to keep pace with inflation, particularly as job benefits like health insurance become the exception rather than the rule. And now we learn that at the other end of the life cycle, in the next generation, a smaller percentage of children will graduate from college than their parents before them.

This stunning turn of events means that the poverty and productivity gap will continue to grow. Greater numbers of young women and men entering the work force will be unskilled and unable to earn more than subsistence wages – or any wages at all. A growing segment of our populace will be unable to sustain itself; a greater tax burden will fall on proportionately fewer taxpayers or there will be less revenue available to support the health, welfare, and education services needed by more people than ever. 

Arizona’s high school graduation rate is reported to be 70 percent, but it is the children of the middle and affluent classes who bring up that average. In fact, fewer than half the children of poverty who enroll in kindergarten make it past the 10th grade. Their failure to do so is a failure of their parents and families, but it also is a failure of our social and educational systems. And so the cycle of poverty continues, along with illiteracy, homelessness, and violent crime.

In the face of these harsh realities, Arizona lawmakers have brutally slashed funding for education and children’s services. Among these legislators are a substantial number who never attended or graduated from college. Yet they have attained positions of prominence and some power.  Perhaps that is why they do not show more support for public education. Perhaps they feel that if they can make it as far as they have, anyone can, with a little hard work, a little determination, and maybe a little luck.

Of course, I don’t really know what they think. I can only judge them by what they do and say – and don’t say. They do not acknowledge the connection between education and poverty and crime. They seem to ignore the obvious consequence of their funding cuts: Fewer, more overworked teachers; more crowded classrooms; less individual attention to those students who need it most; fewer counselors to provide the psychological, health, and social services that are by law required of public schools. More and more at-risk students will fall through as the cracks in our educational and social structures become chasms.

More than any time in our history, our state needs more and better teachers, better prepared students, and a more qualified labor force. This is the precondition for an expanded tax base and a return to economic health that underwrites social and educational growth. Instead, our lawmakers have chosen to decimate our education programs. Businesses are much less likely to move here or expand existing operations as the quality of public education continues to decline.

Drastic funding cuts to public education are more devastating to at-risk students than to students in more affluent neighborhoods. Try collecting fees for extra-curricular or enrichment programs or after-school care in south central Phoenix or south central Tucson. Compare these fees to the amount of money that comes rolling in from parents in north Scottsdale or Tucson’s Catalina Foothills school districts. It is much easier to contribute to a school’s choir trip when it’s not a choice between that and buying food or paying rent.

In both our nation and our state, the children of affluent or upper-middle-income families will not see as much disruption to the quality and quantity of their education as students in schools that serve predominantly lower-income families. As the economic divide widens, the devastating cycle of poverty will worsen. Our overall productivity will continue a decline that parallels our loss of prominence as one of the most educated societies in the industrialized world.

We will continue to need police and prisons, but they are not the solution to society’s problems. They are necessary, but they perform triage.  For our overall quality of life to improve, we need more doctors, scientists, engineers, technicians, and teachers. We need more and better learning environments. The only intervention that can alter the cycle of poverty is education. 

Many states have cut back education spending, but public education in Arizona has suffered catastrophic funding losses, and we are threatened with more to come. The damage to our state’s health and vitality will be felt for generations.  This is hard to visualize. Picture this: There will be fewer high-quality jobs available for our children and grandchildren who qualify for them. They will have to look elsewhere, in other states where business is better, where education is better and the quality of life is better. They will leave.

Our lawmakers say they have made hard choices. I say they have made the wrong choices. Instead of helping to solve the economic and social problems confronting our state by fortifying public education, they have gutted it. Instead of bridging the gap between the haves and have-nots, their choices will polarize our communities even further. Arizona is the Grand Canyon state. In terms of our education system and political will, irony is unavoidable.

Michael Ebner is the Business Manager of The Montessori Schoolhouse Charter School in Tucson. This is the school’s 13th year as a charter school and its 36th year as a Montessori school.