Gov. Jan Brewer is meeting with financial aides Monday to see how much more the state can put into public education.
Brewer told Capitol Media Services she recognizes the deep cuts that have been made in the past. Now, she said, the state is on a much more secure financial footing, complete with cash in the bank.
But the governor made it clear she’s not willing to simply boost funding for schools in hopes that will lead to smarter students. She said there have to be strings attached.
“If we’re going to do things, we need accountability,” Brewer said. “That’s what it all comes down to.”
The governor’s action comes less than a week after voters sharply rejected a ballot measure that would have created a permanent 1-cent surcharge on the state sales tax. About three-fourths of the money would have gone to K-12 education.
Brewer opposed the measure, at least in part because only $90 million of that was directly linked to performance measures ranging from how quickly students advance to parental satisfaction. And she had promised even before the election to look at ways to restore some of the cuts made to education during the recession.
Backers of Proposition 204 will be watching.
Ann-Eve Pedersen, who coordinated the initiative, said the Arizona Parent Education Network she heads will be adopting a wait-and-see attitude before deciding whether to try again in 2014. Pedersen, who would respond only to written questions, said lawmakers need to restore $1 billion they have cut from public education; a legislative report says the changes since 2008 are closer to $600 million, including elimination of state funding for full-day kindergarten.
A lot will depend on the state’s financial health.
“We’re not afloat with a lot of money,” Brewer said.
“But we certainly have a balanced budget, a cash carry-forward and a rainy day fund,” the governor continued. “So we can do things as we need to.”
Legislative budget staffers are predicting Arizona will end this current fiscal year on June 30 with $676 million left over. That is on top of $450 million lawmakers put into a “rainy day” fund.
And estimates are that surplus will continue through the next budget year, even with some built-in increases in spending like more students in public schools, leaving room to add or restore previously cut funding or programs.
But legislators are clearly worried about what will happen in January 2014 when the federal Affordable Care Act kicks in and Arizona is suddenly required to expand eligibility for the state Medicaid program.
One scenario suggests a $411 million deficit in the 2014-15 fiscal year, increasing to close to $1 billion the year after that. And that could put the brakes on any additional dollars.
It was with the idea of providing a dedicated funding source for education, insulated from legislative cuts, that led in part to Proposition 204.
Pedersen billed Proposition 204 as simply a permanent extension of the one-cent temporary tax voters approved in 2010, noting it would not have kicked in until June 1. That would have kept the state sales tax at the same 6.6 percent; with the defeat by a 2-1 margin, it returns to 5.6 percent that day.
But the measure was more than just an extension. It was actually a new tax, complete with a formula of how to divide up the estimated $1 billion it would raise initially each year.
K-12 education would have received about 75 percent of that, with other dollars earmarked for universities, road construction and a new “family stability and self-sufficiency fund.” And even of the money for public education, only $90 million of that was tied directly to performance measures like test scores and parental satisfaction.
Brewer said money needs to be tied to accountability, though she has no specific plan for how to measure that.
“I leave that up to the experts,” she said. But the governor made it clear that student testing has to be a key component of that.
“I think that’s the only way we can get accountability,” Brewer said.
The governor acknowledged that pure test scores, by themselves, are not always a good measure, as students in different schools and different districts start from different points. Brewer said she wants to ensure that students are improving, “that they just don’t pass the test but that they grow from where they were at the beginning.”
“That doesn’t mean that they’re all going to be rocket scientists, but that they’ve grown, somebody’s teaching, somebody’s learning,” she said.
Pedersen and the governor appear to be on the same page at least on the issue of providing more dollars when the state expects more from its schools. The problem has been at the Republican-controlled Legislature.
For example, Brewer sought $50 million to help fund a new mandate that students be able to read at a third-grade level before being promoted to fourth grade.
Lawmakers cut that back by 20 percent. And they refused to fund any part of the governor’s request for $100 million for “soft capital” for things like books and computers.
Accountability aside, Brewer said the success of the new Common Core Standards is also contingent on more money for education.
The idea behind those standards is to align what Arizona requires students to learn in English and math with what is being taught across the country. Potentially more significant, it is designed to provide some of the accountability lawmakers have been demanding because it will mean that the achievement of Arizona students can be directly compared with what is happening in other states.
Brewer said just implementing those standards, though, will require more money for the data systems, as all students are supposed to be taking those tests online.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 6:07 pm on Thu, Nov 8, 2012.
Governor Jan Brewer, good luck in trying to get the teachers in Arizona (especially their Union) to agree to any "accountability". Just look at the huge number of Mesa Schools that "did not meet" the Progress that Schools all across America were expected to be educationally successful. Yes, it can be attributed to the large number if Illegal Alien students in Mesa Schools but Mesa hasn't been an "Illegal Sanctuary City" for almost 2 years now. We may never know if the Mesa School District can ever return to it's "Pre-Sanctuary City" era of educational excellence.
Sadly our "Welcome Back, Kotter" and "Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" teachers judge their teaching success in how many "happy, smiling" students they have in their classrooms. Whether their students do well on AIMS or SAT Test comes in a distant second to their students' "well-being and peer inter-action". Governor Brewer will have to change this "Kumbayah" ethos in our Schools.
Good Luck to all the Governor's aides in doing their utmost to end Arizona being known as the "High School Party" State and bring back our lost educational excellence to where it was in the 1950's and early 1960's, those Halcyon, "Pre-Hippie/Flower Child" Era.
mesateacher posted at 7:16 pm on Thu, Nov 8, 2012.
Leon - you are right about the poor quality of education that Mesa is currently foisting on the public. But your venom is directed at the wrong people. It's not the teachers, it's not the underpowered, emasculated union in Arizona. It's the lousy, pathetic, stupid administration in Mesa. From the top down, the leadership in MPS is pathetic. They have math classes full (35-45) of kids who are largely unprepared to be there. When the hardworking, unsupported teachers give students Fs, the administrators pile on the teachers. Then, they add boneheaded math classes like Financial Planning (what a joke!) to get students to graduate. Yes, there are some teachers who treat their kids like junior high students and don't give meaningful assignments. But it doesn't matter: students won't do them anyway. The illegal's are a problem especially at Westwood and Mesa where I sub frequently. Teachers are miserable, demoralized, unhappy and giving up. There's only one way out to improve education to what it used to be and should be: close all public schools NOW and reopen all as charter schools. The people who run the Great Hearts Academiy (Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, Phoenix) sure seem to know what it takes.
tededitedit posted at 7:31 pm on Thu, Nov 8, 2012.
There are so many school "options" that there will always be schools and systems that will be shortchanged now. There are still too many imported poor kids too. Poor imported families that pay less property, income, and sales taxes. School administrations are still too top-heavy and wasteful. Parents are less involved in their own childrens' education than they should be - where is their accountability? Where is the students' accountability?
JMJ posted at 11:37 pm on Thu, Nov 8, 2012.
The schools were great prior to charters opening. There are a handful of charters which are successful, but they do not take every child. A BASIS has options, and students who are not typically succsssful can be kicked out for not upholding the BASIS standard. Public schools do not have the option of hand-selecting their students.
Teachers are definitely demoralized in Mesa. The administrators are promoted for all the wrong reasons. One of the primary reasons they are hand-picked is because puppets who just nod "yes" to everything when their strings are pulled are valued above true leaders who would actually set a standard and uphold that standard. Yes-men are always welcome in MPS.
Accountability is being set in motion in the new teacher evaluation system. However, that system is already inherently flawed because the strain of AIMS is not felt by every teacher, on the ones who teach "what matters on the test".
All the backseat drivers who comment on how teachers are the problem have no clue about the reality of the teaching profession and what is being done to stymie the excellent teachers by pressing everyone into the same mold, now. You can only squeeze so much out of someone before they dry up and fall off the vine, so to speak. It's been a sad day in Arizona for the better part of the last decade regarding what was a great district, such as MPS, to what it is now.
Keep promoting your friends. Keep demoralizing teachers. Keep saying "those who can't, teach". The truth is "Those who can't even teach PE become administrators in MPS".
How about some accountability on the good old boy system and what is best for kids? How about some accountability as to how bimbos are promoted over qualified personnel who could do the job 1000x better? Oops. Touched a nerve. The Stupidintendency wouldn't want anyone around who can figure out that they are shallow blowhards, themselves, now would they?
soricobob posted at 4:38 am on Fri, Nov 9, 2012.
The Governor needs to clean her own house first. Members of her administration need to "clean up" before she casts stones elsewhere. And, if you have to ask, then google Tom Horne!
Mike McClellan posted at 9:00 am on Fri, Nov 9, 2012.
I think you have to be very careful when suggesting that schools like BASIS and the Great Heart Academies are models for public schools.
Here's why:
They are great schools, no doubt about it. They hold their kids -- and equally important, the kids' parents -- to very high standards. Their kids are clearly successful.
But . . .
If we do want to replicate those schools, we have to do several things:
1. Assure small class sizes. At both BASIS and Great Hearts, one of their selling points is very small class sizes. For example, at BASIS Scottsdale, the ratio of students to teacher is 15:1. At it's 12:1.
By comparison, take one of the most successful district high schools in the state, Hamilton High in Chandler. The ratio there is 23:1, and that includes special ed teachers. At South Mountain High School in Phoenix is about 18:1, again including special ed teachers.
So we'd have to have a dramatic increase in funding to get to the class sizes of BASIS or Great Hearts.
2. We'd have to eliminate special ed programs. BASIS and Great Hearts do not have special ed programs. Why? I dont' know, but they don't.
3. We'd have to change our state's student population. Neither BASIS or Great Hearts kids reflect the general demographics of our state. Those schools' kids are largely white, and largely middle or upper-middle class. None of their schools reports kids whose parents' incomes allow the kids free or reduced lunch.
I think schools could definitely increase what they expect of their students. And the state's moving in that direction, which is good.
But to simply suggest that somehow all we need to do is follow those great charter schools' models is to deny the reality of our state's population.
And the sad thing is, if all schools had the parents of the BASIS and Great Hearts' schools, we'd see a dramatic increase in student achievement. We don't, though, and the responsibility for that is not the schools' but those parents who do not fulfill their duties as parents.
One more thing: JMJ and mesateacher make a valid point about the quality of school administrators -- too many have had too little classroom experience. We need to do a better job of recruiting outstanding education leaders to lead our schools.
WesternConnections posted at 5:44 pm on Tue, Nov 13, 2012.
@Mike McClellan: We're on the same page about the quality of school administrators: "...too many have had too little classroom experience. We need to do a better job of recruiting outstanding education leaders to lead our schools."
For an inside look at how Gilbert Public Schools selects principals, read the Notice of Claim filed by an assistant principal who has been discriminated against and subjected to harassment and retaliation in the Brian Yee scandal: http://westernconnections.com/liznoticeofclaim.html
It's an amazing expose of how superintendent-level flouting of many federal and state laws has harmed an institution, Gilbert Public Schools, that was truly excellent in the past. More here: http://westernconnections.com/brianyee.html
We hear there's more to come.