A Maricopa County judge ruled that the legislature has to add over $300 million to Arizona’s education funding immediately and as much as $2.9 billion over the next 5 years. No surprise, Republicans are balking. “We don’t have the money!” “We don’t owe that much!” And their old favorite from awhile back: “We’re not paying! If you don’t like it, kick us out of office.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Fred DuVal has challenged Republican candidates for governor to join him in supporting the immediate implementation of the court order.
For nearly five years, Jan Brewer, Doug Ducey, and the Legislature have deliberately and illegally underfunded our kids’ schools. On Friday, the courts gave us clear direction for how to fix this moving forward.
I ask the Republican candidates for governor – Doug Ducey, Christine Jones, Scott Smith, Ken Bennett, Frank Riggs, and Andy Thomas – to join me in supporting immediate implementation of this court order so our children can begin benefitting from these resources as quickly as possible.
When I’m governor, there’ll be no more cuts to our children’s schools – not another dime, not another nickel, not another penny! I will work with teachers and parents to make Arizona’s education system the fastest improving in the country.
Together, we’ll give our children the education they deserve and move Arizona forward.
Expect similar challenges in other state races and a whole new collection of talking points around the court order.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2014.
About time someone looks after the ones that can’t fend for themselves.
Go Fred!
I find it financial irresponsible that that the Arizona Legislature has $$ to fund charter schools but refuses to fund the public schools that serve the vast majority of low income families.
And this is why I’m voting for Fred DuVal.
The decision would increase the per pupil funding to $3,560 from $3,373 per year, in total Arizona spends $7,848 per student, among the lowest in the nation, though of course cost of living varies between the states and this accounts for perhaps a small portion of the discrepancy. A teacher in New York is paid a lot more, for example, than a teacher in Arizona.
For a 28 student classroom, you’re looking at an extra $5,236 per year, but about half of that goes to central administration, 1010, in TUSD, so it’s an extra $2,618 per classroom per year. Not couch change, but also not earth-shattering in terms of impact.
Per student it is an extra $187 per year, times 49,000 students, that is an extra $9.2 million a year, but as TUSD losses about 5,000 students in the next ten years, that will ramp up to a loss of $16.9 million a year for TUSD. No matter which way you look at it, 1010 needs to be drastically cut, even as more TUSD schools will need to be closed in the coming years.
Simply put, TUSD doesn’t (or won’t) have the revenue base to support a large administration. It is important to remember that students are being squeezed by both the state and TUSD’s administrative costs.
This has been a paid political announcement……….
David, your hyper partisanship is unnerving. Education is important to all of us whether we are Republican or Democratic, the issue is the how not the what. We also need to be truthful in our arguments, even if it hurts our cause. Some of the comments show me that misinformation has permeated the “faithful”. Charter schools are public schools and many of them are working and creating a more progressive environment for education. Once it comes down to our paychecks we cease to look for what is best for our kids and are only concerned with ourselves.
We all know that a few charters do well. Most do sub-average to average. Why bother? But that’s a totally different discussion.
Arizona needs a new direction. The bigots, the brainless, and the fundamentalists have made AZ into the Mississippi of the West. They have not represented who we are as diverse people. Their ideological economic policies have stifled economic growth and progress, and left Arizonans worse off. Simply put, Republicans don’t know how to govern. We really have to try something new. Let it be Fred DuVal.
Come on Fred, immediate implementation?
Demand the Governor call a special session of the Legislature and offer a solution.
The Governor should offer a special budget proposal to correct the unlawful and purposely unconstitutional underfunding of public education.
Time to seek action, pin those legislators and public officials down, now before the fall elections. No more timid responses, where are the school boards, teachers organizations, and candidates for public office this year?
A Special Legislative Session is in order!
Nice words, and I’m glad to see there is someone speaking up for education, but I find it difficult to trust anyone up there in the “center of the universe”. I have traditionally voted Democrat, because they traditionally support public education and environmental concerns, but it is so easy to say the pretty words, and another thing to implement them. Challenge the Republican candidates to get behind the court order? That’s a pretty tall order—does DuVal really expect bipartisan agreement on this situation, or is he just trying to stir up more dissention in our already contentious state government? If he wants my vote for governor, I want to know HOW he intends to gather the funding, that has been siphoned away from education over the past 10 years, not only that he supports the court order. I don’t see how the court gave “a clear direction” about how that is supposed to happen. But if he has some awesome ideas how to make this happen BEFORE he becomes governor, I’ll get behind him. Time for politicos to put the money where their mouth is.
RONNI, can’t speak for anyone else and I honestly think you are correct. No one will come up with an idea for funding that is totally or even partly accepted. However, pressure needs to be started so the discussion begins. A tax submission to the voters as recently happened probably could have Legislative approval. The important thing is for the Legislature to end the track they are on and stop pitting education against itself. We want more economic opportunity, we need a skilled and educated work force available. Right now we need to stop trying to match other state’s financial incentives to attract new employers make educational systems top notch and attractive for moves to Arizona of business leaders and their corporate employees. Instead of giveaways, Arizona needs to organize a “State Bank” using the state’s availability to use tax free low interest rate bonds to loan corporate startup money with long-term 20 year repayment schedules for development and relocation. They will be competing with existing business on the same tax level and not putting a further drain on the public piggy bank. Fully paid back “Pass-thru Money” increasing our economic activity and tax bases. Education is the starting point.