Page 35 - The Edge - Winter 2017

ARIZONA CAPITOL TIMES CONTRIBUTING ARTICLE

BY GARY GRADO

Douglas proposes spending additional

$680 million on education

“What next?’’ was the collective question immediately a er the last She said at a press conference the state could also work to get the
vote was counted in May for a ballot measure to pump $3.5 billion into federal government to hand over land to the state and utilize revenues
Arizona’s nancially-strapped public school system. that are coming in higher than projected.
And now various interest groups and Superintendent of Public “I don’t appropriate money,” Douglas said. “I’m talking about what
Instruction Diane Douglas are making known their education spending our state needs to appropriately educate our children.”
priorities. Shooter said there is “an active movement afoot” to come up with a
Douglas, who developed her proposals from her statewide “Listening source of funding for education.
Tour,” unveiled a $680 million wish list November 29. One idea is to increase to a penny the six-tenths of a cent sales tax
She wants to spend the money on teacher pay raises as well as dedicated to education, Shooter said.
supplementing rural schools, which are short on teachers and long on Voters approved the sales tax in 2000 as part of Proposition 301,
unpaved roads that damage school buses. She also hopes to restore which is set to expire in 2021. It raises about $600 million a year.
money for upkeep on existing school buildings and to build new ones. Shooter said he’s considering hiring a researcher to survey the
Meanwhile, a coalition of education, business groups and faith groups, business and education communities and Arizona residents to nd out
known as AZ Schools Now, sees the state’s priorities as attracting and education spending priorities.
retaining teachers, updating technology and textbooks in the classroom, “It would be nice to have some real data,” he said.
and capital maintenance. Dana Naimark, president and CEO of Children’s Action Alliance,
e Arizona Association of School Business O cials is all for more which is spearheading AZ Schools Now, said the group hasn’t come
teacher pay, but for them the real crisis is maintaining school buildings. up with a speci c spending plan, but part of the group’s framework is
And there’s an e ort to bring back full-day kindergarten. educating the public and lawmakers about the connection between tax
Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, who will chair the House Appropriations cuts and “investment in education.”
Committee when the 2017 legislative session begins in January, said “We have one pie of general fund dollars and when that pie shrinks
there are many ideas, but very little money. through the tax cuts with no replacement revenue, that o en comes out
“It’s just not going to happen unless people come up with a funding of education,” Naimark said.
source,” Shooter said. Lawmakers have enacted tax cuts, and some continue to be phased in.
Voters in May narrowly approved Proposition 123, which taps into According to projections by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee
the State Land Trust to provide the public school system with $3.5 billion in October, $796 million in corporate income taxes will evaporate by
over 10 years. scal-year 2020.
The Arizona Department of Education, which Douglas runs, Chuck Essigs, a lobbyist with Arizona Association of School Business
distributed $190 million in July that came from the State Land Trust, and O cials, suggested postponing the tax cuts that haven’t taken e ect yet
a month earlier distributed a $50 million general fund appropriation to until there is enough revenue to restore some of the cuts the school
schools. It was approved as part of the legislative package that put Prop. system has endured.
123 on the ballot. “When the economy went bad in 2008 schools and universities
Most school districts and charter schools used the rst infusion of shouldered a lot of the burden to balance the state budget, and now the
Prop. 123 money to boost teacher pay since they had gone years with economy – everybody is talking about its recovery – but the funding for
minimal or no pay raises. schools does not re ect what you would need in a recovering economy,”
Douglas said that even with the passage of Prop. 123, the Essigs said.
overwhelming priority of Arizonans she spoke with during her tour of He said funding for upkeep of school buildings and buses has been
the state is to pay teachers more. one of the hardest hit areas over the years.
Douglas said she wants teachers to get another 5 percent raise, which Essigs said school districts are only getting about 15 cents on the
would cost the state $140 million a year for the next three years, or $420 dollar of what state law says should be provided by the state for capital
million. funding.
She suggested the money come from the state’s $460 million in “You can’t ignore the severe capital problems that are out there in
reserves, or rainy-day fund. schools,” Essigs said. “New buses have to be purchased to get students to
Douglas’ written plan, dubbed “Arizona Kids Can’t Wait,” o ers only school. No matter how much you’re paying a teacher and no matter how
the rainy-day fund and general fund allocations for grants as sources of good that teacher is they cannot be successful in a classroom where the
money for her proposals. heater or air conditioner isn’t working.”

35