But she said some of what can affect this figure overall is a district’s “teacher population.” “I thought all of this was supposed to be about the teachers and the classrooms and the students.”Īuditor General Lindsey Perry, in her report, had no specific explanation for what happened in TUSD. “We keep giving money to the schools and the teachers are losing,” she said. “I don’t understand how that even happens,” Wadsack said. And some of that goes to the fact that, despite the state funding to boost teacher salaries by 20%, the Auditor General’s Office reported that average salaries actually decreased by nearly 4% between 20. Much of her ire, however, was aimed at Tucson Unified School District. Justine Wadsack (R-Tucson) who also voted against the waiver, said there are good schools in her districts, particularly praising Marana and Vail school districts. at a bloated, bureaucratic nightmare which really is not benefiting our kids.” What that’s left for lawmakers, Kern said, is “continually throwing money. “They have never given us a number to where they will be happy and say, ’OK, that’s enough, we can now educate our students with this amount.’”
“And it is still not enough for the public education system out there,” he said. Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) said he supported the increased overall education funding over the years, including a measure that was designed to provide teachers with an average 20% pay hike over four years. And that would have forced drastic spending cuts, including layoffs and school closures. Without HCR 2001, schools would have lost the ability to spend the difference, even though the dollars had been authorized last year by the Legislature. But a constitutional cap imposed by voters in 1980 sets the current limit at $6.4 billion even after annual adjustments for inflation and student growth. The vote comes as total state and local spending this school year is expected to approach $7.8 billion. Your browser does not support the audio element. Hear KJZZ politics editor Ben Giles discuss the AEL with host Lauren Gilger on The Show
Yet he said GOP lawmakers don’t get the credit for all the additional funding - the cash which pushed K-12 spending above the constitutional limit in the first place. And they want more transparency on how the money is being spent.Īnd Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) said at least part of the reason he was supporting the measure was because he believes Republicans would be blamed if schools, deprived of their ability to spend money already given to them, were forced to shut their doors. That vote, following action Tuesday by the House, ensures that schools will not have to cut 17% from their annual current budgets - and do that in just four months.īut even some supporters of HCR 2001 said they are not happy with the academic results, given the additional dollars that the Legislature has put into K-12 education in the past seven years.
On a 23-7 margin, the Senate gave final approval Wednesday to lifting the constitutional spending cap for education, at least for the current school year. Arizona schools won’t be shutting down before the end of the academic year, at least not because they can’t pay their bills.
0 kommentar(er)
