A look ahead

DuVal breaks it all down ... Farewell, Department of Education ... And we'd just get a toothache.

After 12 years on the job, Fred DuVal — one of the longest-serving members of the Arizona Board of Regents — is getting ready to step down at the end of the year.

Originally appointed by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano back in 2006, DuVal was later reappointed in 2018 by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. (Fun fact: DuVal ran against Ducey for governor in 2014.)

Last Friday, DuVal joined the Tucson Agenda’s Joe Ferguson on The Buckmaster Show in Tucson, where the two sat down with host Bill Buckmaster to talk about Arizona’s three public universities and how things are shifting during Donald Trump’s second term as president.

With just half a year left in his role, DuVal didn’t hold back.

He spoke candidly about Trump’s massive cuts to federal grant funding to Arizona universities, the ongoing exodus of top professors heading to better-funded schools, the rising cost of tuition, and why changes to Pell Grants might lead to a national divide in who actually gets access to a quality college education.

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While the big local headlines have focused on the University of Arizona potentially losing $60 million in federal funding, DuVal said the total financial hit is even larger when you factor in Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.

Combined, the state’s three public universities are facing a potential loss that exceeds $100 million, although the “very big caveat” is that some of those grants could come back through litigation or negotiation.

“It's concerning because the research that happens in universities changes our lives. It makes our lives better. It makes our economy stronger. We're curing cancer and creating breakthroughs in technology and new forms of energy,” DuVal said.

What should be done to protect university funding? DuVal believes the best hope to limit the damage is a combination of legal action and political pressure.

But the consequences are already showing. With grant funding in decline, DuVal warned that Arizona may struggle to retain its top academic talent.

“Poaching is, you know, headed our way and we're going to do everything we possibly can to make sure that we keep the best and brightest in order to create these solutions for the next generation and these breakthroughs,” he said. “But it is a constant concern and threat.”

DuVal is also worried about affordability. Tuition at the University of Arizona now tops $13,900 per year for in-state students, even before buying your first textbook.

“It is the most vexing question we face because there is no doubt that tuition has gotten out of hand in every way and in every institution across the country and for a variety of reasons. And too many families are priced out of access,” he said.

Those prices could be even higher for Arizonans if state universities don’t attract out-of-state and international students, DuVal said.

“Out-of-state students, both foreign and domestic, are increasingly drawn to the Arizona offering. They come with a full payment of the full out-of-state tuition. That creates funds that we then use for in-state Arizona students to support the price of the net tuition that Arizona students pay,” he said.

But that model could be in jeopardy.

High-profile clashes between universities and the Trump administration have already raised concerns among international students. Policy uncertainty over visas and admissions has some students worried about deportation.

“If we create a climate where smart, capable and safe foreign students are concerned about whether or not they can come, feel safe and succeed here, they will go elsewhere,” DuVal said. “Australia is all about this. They're going after this talent in a robust way. Other countries will follow suit.”

DuVal is equally alarmed about changes to Pell Grants and federal loan programs. He warned that capping borrowing amounts and limiting eligibility for part-time students could threaten the entire higher education system.

“We've built a system which excludes too many talented students and often based upon income. It's just painful to watch. I mean it is. Someone from the upper 10% is five times more likely to get a degree than the bottom 90%. And I really believe that talent is distributed, but opportunity isn't,” he said.

Pell Grants have long been a critical tool for helping students change the trajectory of their lives, DuVal said. But pending changes could result in the loss of up to $100 million in potential Pell Grants.

“Too many of our Arizona students that are gifted and talented will not be able to complete their degree as a result,” he said. “I just don't think we want a two-tiered education system where resources, rather than talent, dictates the result.”

And the outlook for community colleges may be even worse. DuVal said many Arizona students begin their higher education journey at a community college, and any cuts to Pell Grants for part-time students would have an outsized impact on those institutions.

Arizona’s universities are facing a $100 million crisis that could gut research, drive away top talent, and price students out of college. The Education Agenda is breaking it down so you understand what’s at stake — support our work by becoming a paid subscriber.

Not content with going after Ivy League schools like Harvard and Columbia, the Trump administration is expanding its crusade against higher education to public, state-funded schools.

Their first major victory came against University of Virginia President James E. Ryan.

The stage for Ryan’s high-profile resignation last month was set by a conservative group of UVA alumni known as the Jefferson Council, the New York Times reported this week.

They were fed up with Ryan’s support of diversity initiatives, and disappointed that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin hadn’t forced UVA to get rid of those initiatives.

Then Trump came along.

Shortly after taking office in January, Trump issued executive orders aimed at dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion at universities. The Department of Justice hired Gregory W. Brown, a big-time UVA donor and collaborator with the Jefferson Council, to enforce those orders.

Under Brown’s direction, the DOJ launched a pressure campaign, which led the UVA board to call for an end to DEI, the Times reports. But critics of Ryan said he was slow-walking the dismantling process by changing titles, instead of rooting out DEI (kind of like what University of Arizona officials have been doing with cultural resource centers).

In keeping with the MAGA theory that squashing inclusivity is a civil rights battle of epic proportions, the head of the Jefferson Council, Joel Gardner, compared Ryan’s ouster to President Dwight D. Eisenhower sending troops to desegregate schools in Little Rock in 1957.

The Trump administration reportedly told Ryan that if he didn’t resign, the university would see cuts to jobs, research funding and student aid, the Guardian reports. In his resignation letter, Ryan said he didn’t want to risk all that, so he decided to step down.

The ordeal at UVA prompted concern from Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia.

“If they can do it here, they’ll do it elsewhere,” Warner told CBS’ Face the Nation, adding “they want to take on public universities the way they have now taken on the Ivies.”

Green light for demolition: The U.S. Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the go-ahead, at least for now, to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, NPR reports. Back in May, a federal judge in Massachusetts ordered officials to stop gutting the department and to reinstate 1,400 employees who had been laid off. The judge didn’t pull any punches, as we noted at the time, when he picked apart the Trump administration’s reasoning for the layoffs: “None of these statements amount to a reasoned explanation, let alone an explanation at all.” The judge didn’t have any better luck getting an explanation from the Supreme Court this week. The justices undid his May order with an unsigned decision. And the majority didn’t explain their decision. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the decision “indefensible,” saying it gave a president “the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out.” The injunction from May was lifted, but lower courts still have to decide on the overarching case. The decision met swift backlash in Arizona, where Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez said in a press release that “education is the great equalizer, and an educated society is the antidote to fascism.”

Taking it to court: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joined 23 other states in suing the Trump administration for withholding nearly $7 billion in school funding, the Arizona Luminaria’s Shannon Conner reports. That included about $132 million that was headed to Arizona to pay for after-school programs, English language instruction and other programs. Mayes called the funding freeze “unlawful” and pointed to its “immediate and devastating impact.”

Voucher check: Nearly $50 million in dormant school vouchers are getting a second look from Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, 12News’ Craig Harris reports. It’s the first time state education officials have tried to get back unused voucher money, and it came after Harris revealed $440 million in voucher money that parents had sitting in their Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.

Bucking the trend: While some public school districts are losing students to the school voucher program, the Vail Unified School District is seeing its enrollment grow enough to open a new K-8 school last week, KGUN’s Andrew Christiansen reports. That’s in contrast to the neighboring Tucson Unified School District, which lost 4,000 students over the past few years. Vail school officials say one winning strategy has been to allow parents to send their kids to any school in the district, along with a lot of new homes going up in the Vail area.

Cell phones down: Arizona students are going to have a harder time using their cell phones during school hours, the Arizona Daily Star’s Sierra Blaser reports. A new law, HB2464, requires schools to restrict access to social media to avoid “addictive devices and endless scrolling,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Beverly Pingerelli said.

Every little bit helps: Low-income university students in Arizona are getting a one-time, $16 million boost from the state Legislature, the Star’s Prerana Sannappanavar reports. The scholarship program was approved by the state Legislature and Gov. Katie Hobbs in the new state budget.

Is summer over already?: Students in Chandler are heading back to school today, long before their counterparts in other areas of the state, KTAR’s Shira Tanzer reports. The Chandler Unified School District uses a year-round schedule, with more breaks and a shorter summer vacation. School officials say it helps students retain information better, but it does make it harder to hold athletic events in the triple-digit heat.

School’s never over for us here at the Education Agenda. And we wouldn’t have it any other way! Click that button to stay in school.

If somebody gave us $5,000 when we were 10 years old, we probably would’ve spent it all on M&Ms.

But elementary students at Higley Unified School District are getting the opportunity to make better, more civic-minded choices with that kind of money.

The district is launching a “school participatory budget” program where students collaborate on selecting a campus improvement project to fund, Tom Blodgett reports for the Gilbert Independent.

In all, school officials are setting aside $75,000 for the program. High schools will get a little more to budget with, $7,500, than elementary schools, $5,000.

School officials say the program will teach students about the democratic process and financial literacy.

“We're not asking students to work with PTOs or boosters to come together and say, ‘Oh, we want to have this expensive item,’” Secondary Education Executive Director Jeff Armstrong said. “Nope. We want you to go through the process of understanding you have $7,500, you have $5,000. Those are your limits.”