Districts: Low funding is main threat to Arizona schools

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Arizona school district representatives said the biggest threat to education in Arizona is the lack of money.

Education funding from the state dropped 25 percent from 2008 to 2011. Dysart Unified District Business Services Director Scott Thompson said that has hurt his district.

“Just out of our operating capital, we’ve cut about $22 million during that time,” Thompson said. “That doesn’t include some of the other sources that take us to about $40 million in cuts.”

Chandler Unified School District spokesman Terry Locke said the cuts have put districts in a bind. “A lot of districts are looking at cutting some very effective programs,” said Locke. “In some cases, they’re laying off staff because of economic circumstances.”

And they’re trying to cut the electric bill. Many schools participate in a power-reduction program with their utility. Thompson said when everyone’s running air conditioners, Arizona Public Service company has asked his district to reduce power.

“For us to do that, we’re going to have to raise the temperature about six degrees,” said Thompson. That means classroom temperatures reached 80. Thompson said the Dysart district has been doing that for about two years.

“This year, I’m not exactly sure what situation occurred that concerned the public, but we got a lot of calls and a lot of concern from parents about doing that. Because of that, they now bump up the thermostat only when the buildings are empty.

Locke said that another thing that’s hurting districts is their bonding capacity. Unified districts used to be able to raise money for books, supplies and buildings by selling bonds of up to 30 percent of their secondary assessed valuation. That dropped to 10 percent when the state started to provide funds for building upkeep.

“But now, the state is unable to pay for construction and renovation, and districts argue that the bonding capacity should be increased to the historical mark of 30 percent or 15 percent for elementary and high school.”

A bill that would have done that failed in the legislature last year.

Thompson worries that if something isn’t done, his district will lose good teachers. “We need to give teachers raises. They haven’t seen a raise in over four years,” said Thompson. “At some level, a living wage becomes an issue.”

“At the end of the day, money is important,” said Scottsdale schools Superintendent David Peterson. “We are a business. Our product is student achievement, and it costs dollars to make that happen.”

Peterson said he gets frustrated because a lot of the money he needs for things like maintenance and transportation just isn’t there.

“I’ve got to keep buses on the road,” Peterson said. “Because if I don’t do a good job, DPS is going to pull me over and say ‘You can’t drive that bus anymore,’ ”

Peterson said that the Arizona Education Funding Formula, which relies heavily on sales taxes, corporate income taxes and personal income taxes, needs to be updated.

“The funding formula that we have for schools in Arizona was developed in the 1980’s,” said Peterson. “That’s 30 years old. A lot of things have changed in 30 years, but the way we fund schools hasn’t. That’s pretty, pretty pathetic.”

Use of a tax credit could help schools get more money. Scottsdale Schools Chief Financial Officer Daniel O’Brien said if anyone donates money to a public school, that person can get a tax credit of $200 to $400, depending on whether the filer is a single head of household or married filing jointly.

“If you give money to the school, which you can donate anytime during the year, that is a dollar-for-dollar, cent-for-cent reduction off of your tax bill at the end of the year,” O’Brien said.

But there’s a catch. The money can only be used to pay for extracurricular activities, such as band or sports. O’Brien would like schools to be able to control where the money goes. He also said people donating to private schools can donate up to $1,000 to get credit. That’s more than twice what public schools can receive.

“Why are private school students more important than public school students?” O’Brien asked. “Sometimes private schools can take only the kids that they want. We take every kid, and every kid deserves the greatest education that we can give them. We should be equal to private schools, if not more.”

Peterson said there’s another way for the average citizen to help schools.

“Elect people that are responsive and supporters of our systems,” said Peterson. He also encouraged people to “Look at the initiatives on the ballot, and vote however they feel comfortable voting, but hopefully they understand the impacts of their vote, and what those mean when they vote.”