BENSON — School officials from across Cochise County painted a grim picture for elected officials Friday as they spoke about what state budget cuts are going to do to education.

State Rep. Pat Fleming, D-District 25, left, state Sen. Manny Alvarez, D-District 25, state Rep. David Gowan, R-District 30, and state Rep. David Stevens, R-District 25, listen to Cochise County school officials during Friday’s session in Benson. (Thelma Grimes-Wick News Service)

About 20 superintendents and school administrators said during a meeting with four state lawmakers that while the bigger school districts in Tucson and Phoenix are looking at a 1.5 percent budget cut, the state’s proposals will decrease area school district’s bottom lines by up to 20 percent.

State Rep. Pat Fleming, D-District 25, and state Sen. Manuel Alvarez, D-District 25, attend the nearly two-and-a-half-hour meeting. Republicans David Stevens of District 25 and David Gowan of District 30 arrived more than an hour late to the meeting. They attended a public meeting hosted at Flowing Wells High School in Tucson earlier in the day where educators discussed the same issues.

While Brett Agenbroad, superintendent of the Sierra Vista school district, did not attend the Benson meeting, he sent a letter to the elected officials, stating the impact the proposed cuts will have on the county’s largest school district.

“I believe that most of us in this room would agree that teaching is one of the most socially significant jobs there is,” he said in the letter. “And that teachers are the front line of educating students. Teachers are the link in the chain on which everything educationally depends. Learning still happens one child at a time, one classroom at a time and it is teachers that are in charge of the process.”

Agenbroad said a Sierra Vista teacher with a four-year bachelor’s degree and state mandated post-degree certification makes $27,500 per year. Comparatively, a Sierra Vista police officer with a high school diploma and six months in an academy is starting at $45,600.

Agenbroad was not at the Benson meeting because he attended the meeting at Flowing Wells High School, where he asked elected officials to stop looking at how they can cut the budget, but instead look at the possibility of increasing the tax rate by 1 cent, something many at the Benson meeting said was a good idea.

“Instead of boasting that there will be no new taxes, when the state is carrying a $3.5 billion deficit, now is the time to establish a temporary sales tax for education,” Agenbroad said. “This would generate a billion dollars a year, and would only cost the average family $12.”

Stevens disagreed.

“The last thing you want to do in a declining economy is tax the declining economy,” he said. “We have not yet hit bottom, and we don’t know when we will. Your main concern is education, our main concern is the entire state.”

Stevens told school officials that elected officials are trying to look at the whole picture. He said the school officers brought up some good points that he would consider as the budget process moves forward.

One of those points is that the bigger school districts are facing more than a 1 percent decrease, while rural schools in Cochise County and across the state are looking at 20 percent.

Gowan and Stevens agreed the numbers should be fair across the board, and they agreed to look into the matter.

Fleming and Alvarez weren’t happy with the budget cuts the state’s Republican-led Legislature is moving forward with. Alvarez said the process has not been a bipartisan effort.

Alvarez, who was recently elected to the Senate after serving several years in the House, said the Republicans have held numerous closed-door meetings, and many of them refuse to increase taxes even though it would help education and balance the current budget crisis.

Arizona lawmakers have been working long hours over the last several weeks to fix a $1.6 billion shortfall in the current year’s budget, and are now looking at the education cuts in the coming fiscal year to make up for an estimated $3.5 billion deficit.

Throughout the meeting, Gowan stressed he is new to the process. While he thought he would have time to adjust after being sworn in this January, he was thrown into the ring to balance one of the state’s worst budget crises.

Fleming sided with Alvarez, stating the budget proposals to cut education are not in the best interest of the children or the state.

Most of the schools in Cochise County are rural and rely heavily on student enrollment to balance a budget. With the proposed cuts, many administrators said they are looking at between $250,000 to $1 million losses next year, and that translates to layoffs that schools and the communities can’t afford.

Ron Aguallo, superintendent in Valley Union and Elfrida, said the district will likely lose $250,000.

“I’m not TUSD (Tucson Unified School District). You take a quarter of a million dollars and it impacts us greatly,” he said. “When you lose employees here, it doesn’t just hurt the school, it hurts the entire community. Cuts like these only hurt Maricopa, they kill us.”

Linda Frost, of Ash Creek Elementary School in Pearce, said her school is likely one of the smallest in Cochise County, and they don’t have businesses in the community, noting the district is that community.

“You start laying people off, and they have no other alternative except to go on welfare,” she said. “And all I keep hearing is money, money, money. What about the kids?”

Many of the administrators said they believe crime rates in the state will increase as education funding decreases.

Bryan Bullington, principal of Benson High School, asked if educators are just going to have to accept that next year budget’s will be less, programs will be cut and teachers will be laid off, or if there is something not only the school, but residents can do.

Alvarez said now is a critical time, and residents are going to have to start bombarding elected officials with calls and e-mails that state their case, and dissatisfaction for how the Republicans are working to balance the budget.

After the meeting, Trudy Berry, the Cochise County superintendent of schools, said it’s important that people speak up now, rather than waiting until it’s a done deal and education is on the chopping block.

“Our elected officials want the input, they need our input,” she said. “As many of them have said they are new to this process. They need to be educated and we need to be explaining all the details we can. I am a firm believer in calling your Legislature. That is how you can make a difference.”

Alvarez said the cuts to education being proposed will take the state back, instead of moving forward. The cuts will resemble funding provided to public education in 2006.

Arizona is currently ranked 49th in the nation in when it comes to student-vs.-teacher ratios.

Schools have already gone through the first round of cuts. Last month, Gov. Jan Brewer signed legislation to cut $580 million from the current budget, most of that from education. Arizona universities were hit the hardest, losing $142 million, community colleges lost $9 million and the state’s public education system lost $133 million.

The current legislation cut current year funding to public schools by 2 percent. School administrators said that while a mid-year budget reduction will be difficult, most schools can manage these cuts. It’s next year’s cuts the state’s public education system cannot handle, they said.