Page 32 - The Edge - Winter 2016

ARIZONA CAPITOL TIMES CONTRIBUTING ARTICLE

BY GARY GRADO

Technical Education Districts

Continue Trying to Restore Funding

With school districts and charter schools on the verge of
benefiting from a settlement ending a school-finance lawsuit,
the state’s Joint Technical Education Districts hope to persuade
lawmakers to restore money that will disappear next fiscal year.
Lawmakers this year cut JTED funding to save an estimated
$29 million a year, said Alan Storm, Pima County JTED
superintendent.
Storm said the cuts, which are to take effect in fiscal year
2017, are so deep that teachers will be laid off. School districts
will lose career and technical education classes within two
years.
He said JTEDs tried during the recently completed special
session to tack on legislation to restore the pending JTED cuts,
but were unsuccessful.
The districts offer tuition-free career and technical education
to high school students beginning in their sophomore year, as
well as students who are under age 22.
Gov. Doug Ducey on Oct. 30 signed a $3.5 billion education
spending proposal that will settle the longstanding lawsuit,
Cave Creek v. Dewit, prompted by the Legislature’s refusal to
fund inflation adjustments for K-12 for several years.
Voters must approve the measure in a vote scheduled for
May 17.
JTEDs will benefit from the settlement. For example,
Pima’s take will be roughly $630,000. East Valley Institute of
Technology’s centralized campuses will get $413,613 from the
increase in the per student baseline, said EVIT spokeswoman
Cece Todd.
But the JTEDs say they need more.
“Looking ahead to the next legislative session, EVIT’s No.
1 concern is that lawmakers restore JTED funding to 100
percent,” Todd said.
Storm said the way he understands the cuts is they were
made to plug a $29 million hole in the fiscal year 2017 budget.
The state, however, is facing a surplus of $260 million for the
current fiscal year 2016.
“They don’t need our 29 to $30 million, they don’t need it
to balance the budget,” Storm said. “So the easy fix is don’t
impose those tax cuts you put into legislation last year.”
Storm said JTEDs have statewide support from both
Republicans and Democrats on rescinding the cuts.
“They didn’t realize how disastrous the cuts they approved
were,” he said.

32 THE EDGE | WINTER 2016