Setting the standardThe Green Mountain state of Vermont is more than 3,000 miles away, and at least 30 degrees cooler, yet initiatives to equalize school funding there have provoked as much heat as those in the great state of Arizona.Here, legislators sweat out an Aug. 15 deadline to adopt a school construction funding formula that will pass Arizona Supreme Court muster. There, novelist John Irving, a long-time Vermonter, took vituperative aim at a school funding bill that would equalize property tax revenues among the state's richer and poorer districts, substantially raising taxes in property-rich towns. Irving's pointed barbs, and the reaction they provoked, cut across state lines and deep into American consciousness about public education. When Vermont's Act 60 passed, Irving threatened to move out of the state. He insisted that he did not mind paying more taxes but objected rather to the redistribution of wealth. And he did not want his son in an "under-funded public school system." In other words, "Spend my money on my own schoolhouse." In Arizona, objections to efforts to resolve the chronic funding issue have come predictably from the state's richer districts, which fought for a provision that would have allowed them to opt out of a statewide equalization plan and instead continue to rely on school bonds and property taxes to pay for schools. When the court shot that down, they championed a provision that would allow them to raise additional funds, beyond those allocated by the state, to exceed minimum standards. That raises the troubling specter of an enduring two-tier system of haves and have-nots, a la Irving, the very situation the courts are seeking to redress. To avoid that, minimum standards to be established for Arizona in the coming months must assure an acceptable threshold for all students. Will every school in the state have the same amenities? No. But, for those who believe fervently in public education's mandate to support every student in reaching full potential, it is something to aspire to. Arizona standards should reflect that commitment. 
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