Yesterday I wrote about the gap between what Ducey wants us to think he means when he calls Prop 123 a “first step” and what he really means. He wants to leave the impression that he believes Prop 123 is a first financial step, a down payment on a significant increase in school funding. What he actually means is, he wants to keep, or lower, the budget’s current per-student funding rates while shifting as much of that money as possible toward high rent school districts and charter schools.
I have a suggestion. Let’s take Ducey at his word, or at least what he wants us to believe is his word. Let’s pretend he’s really advocating for increasing the amount we spend on education. And then let’s be APPALLED! and OUTRAGED! when he goes back on his word. Hell, let’s hold every one of the First Steppers to the same standard. If you say Prop 123 is a first step, that means you’re an advocate for budgeting more money for public schools as soon as possible.
Looking at the budget deals being cut by Ducey and the Republican legislative leadership, we need be APPALLED! and OUTRAGED! right now.
Thursday, Ducey & Co. were talking about cutting $21 million from school funding. That’s absolutely appalling. Lowering the amount our state budget allots for our children’s education when we’re already one of the lowest spenders in the nation? Outrageous! Especially when you promised to increase funding by telling us Prop 123 is just a first step. This morning it looks like there’s a deal afoot to restore that funding. Again, unbelievable! Outrageous! That’s the best you can do, put back the money today you stole from our kids yesterday? I thought you said Prop 123 was only a first step in boosting funding for public education. Where’s the rest of the money you promised?
Let’s put some figures to what the next step might be after the approximately $300 million “first step” taken by Prop 123. As a starting point, we’ll use one of the more generous assessments, from the U.S. Census, of where we stand in the national per-student-funding category: 49th place. That extra $300 million from Prop 123 leaves us right where we are, stuck in 49th place. If we want to tie with Number 48, Oklahoma, we’ll have to add $200 million a year to the state budget on top of the Prop 123 funds. To get even with Number 47, Mississippi, the state budget contribution will have to increase by $600 million.
Let’s not even think about adding what the state would have to kick in to bring us up to the national average. That would be $3.2 billion a year, or roughly the total of what Prop 123 will add to our children’s educations over its entire ten year life span.
If we hold Ducey and his henchmen to their “first step” promise and they fail to come through, we should express our outrage by calling them liars and hypocrites, loudly and repeatedly. If they refuse to make good on their promise, we should throw them out of office sooner rather than later and replace them with people who actually care about our kids. And if they say, “We didn’t really promise we’d spend more money, that’s not what we meant when we said Prop 123 was a first step,” then we accuse them of being in league with the Prince of Darkness, the Princes of Dark Money and all the other deceivers who create cunning and devious ways to lead us astray. That’s an even better reason to throw them out of office.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2016.
“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”
hahahaha
Welcome to the world of deception David.
How you like it now?
Problem is, David, we already have enough evidence to be APPALLED and OUTRAGED — and it’s there in Prop 123 as much as it is in any other thing Ducey and his cronies have cooked up. So why not be APPALLED and OUTRAGED by Prop 123 and VOTE AGAINST IT?
Can’t answer THAT question, can you? No, because there IS no valid reason to vote FOR Prop 123. All the so-called Democrats including Farley, including DuVal, who’ve gone over to the dark side are not saving their ability to be APPALLED and OUTRAGED for some future date at which their outrage can be properly spent. What’s happening is they are losing their credibility with the people who should properly be their base of support — permanently.
Ah but there is an answer to that and you see, once again you have brought this on yourselves.
We begged and pleaded for support to keep Obama and the left from destroying our healthcare, and you did nothing. You stood by and let them take it away from hard working middle class families. They lied and deceived the public with a scam that couldn’t possibly work. But they pinned the expenses on the taxpayers.
You created a slash and burn mentality as your tear America apart. Public education will be the next victim.
Now it’s our turn.
Waive the white flag when you’ve had enough.
School budgets have already penned in the revenue increases:
School districts have made it clear that funding teacher salaries is the priority if Prop 123 passes on May 17. To date, more than 25 school districts have released budgets hinging on the passage of Proposition 123 — if Proposition 123 does not pass, these teachers will see no pay increases for the foreseeable future.
I voted YES and encourage Arizonans to join with tomorrows leaders, to secure education funding today.
The key question is…..can the three years buy us enough time to get rid of the republicans and pray that a sane legislature will come in to fund education in the fourth year? We take Ducey at his word thats why we’re not thinking past 3 years. We can’t even think past tomorrow so screwed up the priorities of this state are.
Why not drop deseg order and use the money that is currently being wasted on social tinkering and exhaust emissions that contribute to global warming from school buses running all over town?
If school districts have released budgets saying what they will do with the Prop 123 money, that’s their mistake. Whether Prop 123 passes or does not pass, they will not get what they need: SUSTAINABLE, SUFFICIENT funding streams FROM THE RIGHT SOURCES.
Vote NO on 123 and let the OUTRAGE at our public school systems’ ongoing distress accomplish the right things: not capitulating, but booting these malfeasant politicians and their transparent self-serving blackmail scams out of office.
Watching our “Democrat” sell-outs like DuVal — actually appearing together with Ducey to promote this CRAP — just makes clear that more back-room deals like the deal that produced 123 were struck, and that DuVal & the other weaklings and sell-outs cannot be trusted and should not be supported at any point in the future.
My line in the sand has been drawn – NO on 123. It is time to take a stand and begin to elect those who actually support the voters who live in AZ, not the likes of the Koch brothers and the current governor.
The Kochs may support Hillary. Should she keep taking their money?
I remember a time when they used to threaten police and fire services to extort money from the people, but I guess that works best for more local governments. If you want to coerce money from tax payers on the state level you have to threaten the future of their children. Nevertheless, no matter how much perfume they put on this steaming pile of manure, Proposition 123 still stinks, and as far as trusting Governor Ducey, to paraphrase the old joke: You know how to tell Ducey is lying, his mouth is moving.
The next step – “Make Arizona Mexico Again”
Sorry, I was off my meds again. As usual, when that happens, I type stupid shit that makes no sense and doesn’t pertain to the subject being discussed.
I can’t believe I actually typed “Make Arizona Mexico Again”. What was I thinking? I’m such a tool!
Mama really needs to take my computer away and force me out of the basement to get a job.
Sincerely,
The New and (not really) Improved What, Again
David W – Healthcare is not “destroyed.” At least not by the ACA. But don;t let reality get in the way of your nonsensical rant.
Jason, who’s paying your premium because obviously it is not you. And if it is, how do you like your $6500 deductible?
Being behind Mississippi really hurts. It is apparent that current state government is: deaf and belligerent, unyielding and short-sighted, offensive in its denial of legally voted mandates, and just plain sneaky. Didn’t used to be.
Hi Dave. Please write a short article explaining why public education is under funded and disrespected in AZ. (And other states).
David it continues to amaze me that you can write the stuff you write and then not come to the conclusion that you are leading to! Obviously, according to what you have written, after we are amazed and appalled we are supposed to vote YES on their NEXT cockamamie scheme to hurt our kids and grandkids–because thats the Arizona Way! We are supposed to continuously reward them for being criminals and liars by trusting them “just one more time”.
I was not in the negotiations, and I cannot imagine what kind of threats and insinuations could have caused usually excellent legal teams to strike such a miserable deal. Clearly , the supes have built budgets around money that doesn’t exist in order to build a constituency for a pittance that they made sure was UNDESIGNATED funding so that they can scare the living h^ll out of already starving teachers. I’ll be interested to see just how LONG the Prop 123 money goes for teacher raises…..if at all.
@Betts Putnam etc…..
Did you see the post regarding the ice cream man’s plan to stack the state Sup.court? If we don’t get some funding now, with a new stacked court, we will never get ANY funding!
Betts, we both recognize that Prop 123 is a bad deal. For you, that means voting no. For me, it means hesitantly voting yes, because I think it’s a better choice than voting the proposition down. I simply don’t see this legislature adding to school funding any time in the near future, and I don’t see them following the court order to pay up what they owe the schools. That means Prop 123 makes it possible, actually probable, that some more money will flow to schools for a few years, and it’s the only way that’s going to happen. And I also think, though Ducey wins if the Prop passes, he wins even bigger if it loses (“I guess voters don’t want more money for schools, even with no new taxes. Look at all those Democrats who voted No! And they claim to support education! Oh well, I did my best.”) Rather than saying No on Prop 123, I’d rather say, “It’s about time you coughed up some of that money you and your fellow Deadbeat Dads illegally stole from our children’s education. But Prop 123 is only a beginning. It’s not early what our children need. Let’s see some real commitment in the state budget.”
Thoughtful, intelligent people can look at the same facts — so far as I know, we agree on the facts — and come to different conclusions about how to deal with them.
The only thing I have heard that the money will be used for is pay raises. If that really helps the children, then the teachers have been holding them back, or dumbing them down, so to speak. How dishonest is this?
The Supreme court of Wisconsin has already been stacked thanks to Koch bros. puppet governor Scott. Arizona is next on their list. Acey Ducey is just another Koch bros. puppet. Anything he says comes straight from Koch bros. playbook.
Jason you really should try to educate yourself on the facts. My nonsensical rant is TODAY”S news.
Just over half of the 23 nonprofit startups seeded with Obamacare loan dollars have collapsed after hemorrhaging red ink. The 11 surviving plans continue to struggle, with more than $400 million in combined losses last year.
“I have to raise prices because I have to assume the worst,” said Martin Hickey, CEO of New Mexico Health Connections, one of the surviving co-ops, which expects to increase prices by roughly a third for 2017. “Whether it stabilizes or not, we can’t take the risk.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/obamacare-rate-hikes-a-looming-political-headache-for-democrats-222663#ixzz47Y0LJfEb
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Raising rates by a third is a 33% increase. The ACA was designed to collapse health insurance. Then we can surely bankrupt the country.
David, Before voting Yes you really need to carefully read the language of Prop 123. All of the money that will be taken from the Land Trust will go directly into the General Fund. Once in the general fund it can be spent however the legislature and El Duce want to spend it. It may go to fund school districts, but it may not. Now that El Duce has proven that court decisions are not worth the paper they are written on there is absolutely no reason to believe all …or even most…of the money will go to public schools. Assuming all…or most…of the money goes into public schools there is every reason to believe the governor will use the Land Trust money to “supplant” rather than “supplement” any money the legislature would have appropriated for public education. From El Duce’s perspective the entire reason to propose and pass Prop 123 was to secure an additional funding source for tax breaks for his well-connected wealthy friends.
Finally, besides the tentative budgets being put forward by school districts anxious to secure a Yes vote on Prop 123, there is no reason to believe a significant portion of the funding will go to increase teacher compensation. Districts like TUSD and SUSD that spend less than 50% of their revenue inside of the classroom (on teacher pay) will continue to do so. Those that are already spending the bulk of their revenue on teacher compensation will also continue to do so. In short, Prop 123 will ultimately not benefit teachers, nor will it benefit students since inadequate compensation is already a huge barrier to Arizona’s ability to attract and retain the great teachers students need and deserve.