TUCSON, Ariz. — Statewide budget cuts and a struggling economy are threatening K-12 environmental education programs in Pima County, but program administrators remain hopeful their programs will withstand the storm.

Cities and counties across Arizona face budget cuts for all types of education programs this year. This includes science and math programs designed to meet state standards, gifted education and charter school funding, according to the Arizona Legislature’s budget plan.

Kindergarten through twelfth-grade schools will lose more than $133 million of their education budget in 2009. Public environmental education programs that produce free curriculum and presentation programs for classroom use could lose major portions of their budget as well, according to Beth Gorman, media relations specialist for the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality.

“There’s a possibility that all that funding will be greatly reduced or eliminated, and we won’t be able to continue the programs,” Gorman said.

2009 Budget Total Statewide K-12 Budget Decrease: $133 million Decrease in Statewide Environmental Quality Budget: $4.4 million Tentative Total PDEQ Education Budget 2009: $268,000 Source: Arizona Legislature Joint Budget Committee and PDEQ media specialist

Budget Woes

Directors of the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality and other environmental organizations in Tucson, such as the Environmental Education Exchange, emphasized that with so many environmental changes happening on the planet, this is not the time to drop environmental education programs.

Gorman said she hopes that PDEQ's current education budget of $268,000 will remain intact in the next fiscal year. Only time will tell, she said. The budget for the next few years is still undetermined, but Gorman does not expect them to be easy.

At the end of January, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed off on the measures to fix the 2008-2009 budget deficit in Arizona and the 2009 fiscal year budget. The plan made significant cuts to education and environmental quality funding statewide.

Tim Bee, director of the governor's Southern Arizona office, could not be reached for comment.

Without funding, environmental education programs offered for free to schools would be in jeopardy.



About the Programs

The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality offers free programs to teachers and students throughout the county's school districts that teach students about air quality, recycling and pollution. Gorman said PDEQ receives several requests a day for interactive presentations.

Demonstrators use healthy and unhealthy pig lungs, soil samples, and balloons to bring the environment alive for students from kindergarten to eighth grade.

Students use current technology in the classroom with a Web site called Airville that teaches students about air quality and how to help stop pollution.

Students can also register to be Clean Air Kids Club members through the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality and be kept up-to-date on environmental issues when they receive a monthly newsletter in the mail.

Worries for the Future

Under the expected state budget cuts this year and in 2010, many of these programs may be lost.

A loss of funding “could definitely put a stop to our department, especially the education programs,” said Karen Wilhelmsen, an outreach program coordinator for PDEQ.

Other programs in Pima County also feel the budget crunch.

Jose Marcos runs the border programs for the Environmental Education Exchange, a non-profit organization based in Tucson that focuses on getting the word out about the environment and the changes it faces. Environmental Education Exchange works with Tucson Water to provide water conservation lessons to K-12 students in area schools.

The lessons vary depending on the age group of the students. For instance, first- through third-grade students learn about water conservation with the characters “Dr. Faucet” and “Da Drops.”

Marcos said the budget cuts are going to greatly affect the programs his group offers to students.

“We are going to have to lower our offer. We’re going to have to do the same for much less,” Marcos said.

Did You Know... ...that the Regional Science Center in Tucson serves more than 63,000 students a year with science curriculum? Source: Joan Gilbert, K-12 Curriculum Coordinator, Regional Science Center

Joan Gilbert, the science curriculum coordinator for K-12 programs at the Regional Science Center, a branch of the Tucson Unified School District, also worries that budget cuts will change how things work for environmental education in the area. But she remains optimistic that the programs will stay afloat and continue to provide services to students.

“The budget cuts give an incentive to come up with new ideas,” Gilbert said.

Without the funds they are used to receiving, PDEQ, Environmental Education Exchange and the Regional Science Center will have to come up with unique ways to provide the same or similar services to the students.

“It’s kinda scary, but it gives us opportunities to be creative and provide more great environmental curriculum that pertains to their world,” Gilbert said.

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