How Arizona Compares - Public Policy Areas 1 through 5

Crime and Punishment

• Worst state for serious crime (violent crimes and thefts) due to transiency of population, long border with Mexico, large low-income population, and increasing proportion of younger residents
• High rate of incarceration, overcrowded prisons
• High rate of justice system spending

• Boost statewide efforts against auto theft.
• Focus resources on substance abuse prevention and treatment because of the connection to crime.
• Change sentencing laws to provide more flexibility and reduce mandatory imprisonment.
• Address education, community, and family disadvantages that often link to crime and violence.
• Fix the corrections “revolving door” by providing more assistance as inmates are released from incarceration and preventing their return.

Health and Health Care

• High percentage of people, many of which are children, without health care, although health insurance coverage improving
• Low in the rate of health care expenditures by the state
• Overall health of residents is better than average

• Expand health insurance coverage to all Arizonans.
• Focus on disease prevention and “wellness” for most of the public, while intensely managing chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease.
• Reduce risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex, drunk driving, smoking, substance abuse, and unsafe handling of firearms.
• Become prepared to support the health needs of an older Arizona.
• Increase the number of trained health care workers and those in related professions.

Education

• Highest number of charter schools
• Large class sizes
• Less spending than nearly all other states on K-12
• Large numbers of dropouts
• Not enough high school graduates go on to college
• Inadequate data and tracking systems to judge whether reform policies are working.
• Stanford 9 test scores are improving

• Expand state-funded voluntary all-day kindergarten to all schools throughout the state
• Ensure that community- and school-based programs and services support the rapid acquisition of English skills
• Provide appropriate resources to all schools to apply “best practices” at such milestones as 3rd grade, 8th grade, and the first year of college to increase achievement and completion rates
• Match skills needed in the workforce with academic learning for young people and adults
• Develop more options for financial aid for higher education among low- and middle-income students of any age
• Create data systems that document the performance of Arizona’s education system from preschool through postsecondary education

Business Futures

• Excellent job growth, but not necessarily the right jobs
• Need to develop high-paying, skilled jobs
• Salaries below national average
• Significantly below the national average in gross state product per capita
• Research and development efforts and amount of high tech rank well nationally

• Develop, attract, and retain an educated, creative work force for the knowledge economy
• Remove barriers to commercializing university technology and life science research
• Create and attract high-skill jobs
• Enhance the “support system” for a robust knowledge economy, including overall quality of life, health care, arts and culture, and environmental protection
• Spread the economic success and promise in metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson to all areas in Arizona

Families and Incomes

• Arizona has more children below poverty level (especially in rural areas) than most other states
• Per capita personal income lower than national median
• High birth rate
• Large number of low-income families/children without health insurance
• High teen birth rate

• Increase workers’ skills to qualify them for higherpaying jobs and to create and attract high-value jobs
• Expand opportunities for affordable, quality child care to provide greater work and education options for parents and a good start for children
• Expand health insurance coverage, one of the greatest concerns for low-income workers and a substantial barrier to entering the labor force
• Increase access to affordable housing to support stable employment and career development
• Create more preschool opportunities for low income children

Introduction to the How Arizona Compares study
Policy Areas 1 through 5
Policy Areas 6 through 10

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