Mesa, A.J. schools don't need budget override

On Nov. 3, the Mesa and Apache Junction unified school districts will hold budget override elections. The truth is that those school districts have plenty of taxpayer money - more than enough to pay for excellent teachers and dynamic administration. The problem is that they are wasting much of that money.

According to the annual report of the Arizona superintendent of public instruction (www.azed.gov/annualreport/AnnualReport2008/Vol1.pdf), per-student resources in 2008 were $7,967 for Mesa and $7,285 for Apache Junction. Those figures do not include building construction and other capital costs.

Let's look at Apache Junction. If the average classroom in that district has 25 students, that means there is $182,000 of potential resources in that classroom. Assume an annual reserve of 5 percent. That still leaves $173,000 of potential resources in that classroom. Think about that for a moment.

If the district could limit the amount it allocates to that classroom for administrative overhead, supplies and other programs (library, band, sports, etc.) to 25 percent ($43,000), it could allocate $90,000 for the salary and benefits of a good teacher in that classroom, and still allocate $39,000 toward a special education instructor who works with the Individual Education Plans in that classroom. Mesa could pay its instructors even more.

We know that a motivated teacher is the single most important factor in providing a high-quality education. So why do school districts fail to use their ample resources to pay good teachers what they're worth?

The reason your district does not pay good teachers what they're worth is that your district is mismanaging its resources. Much of the blame goes to the labor rules imposed by the teacher unions. Under those rules, good teachers are paid the same as bad teachers, and bad teachers are not given the pink slips they deserve. Also, most school districts are very heavy on bureaucratic overhead.

Powerful lobbying groups, such as the Arizona Education Association and the Arizona School Boards Association, promote the big lie that Arizona schools do not have enough resources. They tell us that Arizona is 49th in the country in per-pupil spending. Even if Arizona was 49th in the country, we have more than enough money to give Arizona the best school system in the country, with statewide average resources of $7,730 per student in unified school districts (not counting capital), and much more in non-unified districts.

Voters should not be led astray by promises that more money will lead to increased student performance. There is no evidence whatsoever to support that notion. Since 1970, Americans have more than doubled per-pupil spending on government schools, in inflation-adjusted dollars. Sadly, student performance has been flat during that period, showing no return on those huge investments.

The only state that has seen significant improvements in student performance is Florida, which began instituting major reforms in 1998. Florida did not increase its spending any more than other states did. Instead, Florida achieved results through vigorous promotion of school choice and by having meaningful testing and real accountability.

The Mesa and Apache Junction districts have enough resources to sustain budget reductions. If their override questions fail at the ballot, they will lose about 7 percent of their maintenance and operations budgets, but they will still have more resources than Arizona's charter schools, which received $6,659 per child in 2008.

Note that charter schools have proven to do a better job of educating kids, including disadvantaged student populations. Further, many Arizona private schools provide an excellent education for tuition of less than $5,000 per year.

In fact, budget reductions are exactly what the Mesa and Apache Junction districts need to focus their attention on becoming more efficient, eliminating excess administrative expenses, and getting out from under the union pay scale.

The bottom line is that we need more education for our tax dollars, not more tax dollars for education. Please vote "no" on the Nov. 3 school overrides.

Tom Jenney is Arizona Director of Americans for Prosperity. Learn more at www.aztaxpayers.org.