Salt River Project, Valley of the Sun
United Way, and Southwest Human Development are
corporate sponsors for the new Phoenix Great Start Pilot Program.
The program enables staff in the Balsz school
district to give children a Passport to Culture and Education.
It is intended to broaden children’s
experiences in preparation for school, and thereby facilitate learning. Said
Mayor Greg Stanton “A child’s earliest experiences in life are important for
their long term well being.”
The program will enable children to visit the Phoenix Zoo, Arizona
Science Center,
Pueblo Grande
Museum, Children’s Museum
of Phoenix, Arizona Latino Arts
and Cultural Center,
Heard Museum,
Phoenix Art Museum,
and Japanese Friendship
Garden.
The currently closed Arizona Mining and Mineral
Museum would have been a prime
candidate for inclusion in the program. It was highly regarded for its
educational value and admitted children for free. School busses were once lined
up behind the museum nearly every day during the school year. Conspicuously
excluded from the program is the AHS Marley
Center Museum
(AKA History Museum
at Papago Park)
in Tempe.
Why do Arizona
taxpayers provide millions of dollars per year to the Arizona Historical Society to operate a museum
that hardly anyone visits and that the local community does not regard as
having significant educational value?
Reference:
Phoenix museum
subsidy aids some low-income kids
Eugene Scott
The Arizona Republic,
Monday, 4.29.2013, page B1
