Early ballot voters have a chance to voice their concerns over new taxes in their local school district election this week. Many school districts across Arizona are asking voters to approve new taxes to fund school construction, salary increases and purchase new buses. These bond elections, capital overrides and maintenance and operations overrides are taking place in the Valley in Balsz Elementary, Creighton Elementary, Fowler Elementary, Madison Elementary, Phoenix Union, Paradise Valley Unified, Riverside Elementary and Roosevelt Elementary school districts.
Many school districts are asking voters to approve at least one of three types of taxes: one, bonds used to repair aging facilities and build new schools; two, a maintenance and operations override that allows districts to exceed their state-approved budget by up to 15 percent for regular operations; and/or three, a capital-outlay override that can pay for new items such as buses, computer systems, textbooks and classroom furniture. Cash-strapped families facing foreclosure, unemployment, and rising utility and water rates, all have a chance to vote no as they are facing their own serious economic hardships and cannot ask for a life-line.
As school districts are asking for more of your hard-earned money, more district schools statewide failed to meet federal benchmarks this past school year. 42% of all Arizona’s district schools failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). It is worth noting all Arizona schools are supposed to make AYP by 2014. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires quick, annual educational progress for all students regardless of educational and socioeconomic challenges. Each grade level must reach a specified passing rate to make AYP.
It is true that more money needs to be spent in the classroom. In fiscal year 2009, Arizona’s state-wide percentage of dollars spent in the classroom was an astonishingly low 56.9 percent – which is the lowest that it has been in the 9 years the Auditor General’s Office has been monitoring classroom dollars. Yet, school district administrators across the state are crying for more funds that greatly improve their quality of life, not improving student achievement in the classroom.
Let us use the Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) as a quick snapshot as to why you should vote against all of these measures. PVUSD school board is asking voters to support nearly $209 million to renew capital overrides and bonds. If approved, the funds would support operational costs, instructional materials and capital improvements.
As recent as 2010-2011, 16 of PVUSD’s district’s 47 schools failed to meet federal benchmarks. The same year 11 PVUSD schools failed to make AYP in math while four schools failed to meet standards in both math and reading. As failure rates have increased in PVUSD, school board administrators still see a need to ask the taxpayers for more money to continue to fund these failing schools. Even more disconcerting – the bond and capital override campaigns are being orchestrated by the Arizona Education Association – the same education lobby that favors teacher unions, not students. Instead of using “Strong, safe schools” as PVUSD’s campaign slogan, they should focus on improving student achievement as Paradise Valley district schools continue to miss federal benchmarks.
On a global perspective PVUSD students fail to meet national standards both in reading and math achievement compared to 25 other countries. The average student in PVUSD would only perform 42% better than the international group in math and 52% better in reading according to The Global Report Card. To put it more bluntly, if these same PVUSD kids were enrolled in Singapore schools, their performance would significantly drop to 24% in math and 42% in reading!
It is common knowledge that urban school districts tend to spend more per pupil. Yet, most elite suburban public school districts in the United States produce mediocre results – our best school districts only appear to perform well when compared to failing urban districts. How does that help our bottom line?
As school districts fail to unleash more money into the classroom they continue to install covered parking structures for administrators to park their luxury vehicles. Even more disconcerting is seeing the blatant abuse of government waste with newly installed subsidized solar cells on roofs of these parking structures and on school buildings valley wide.
When you are filling out your early ballot or voting at a voting center, please think about the last time your family had disposable income to splurge on something that wasn’t on your necessities list. Then, decide if you want the school board administrators to continue to mismanage your hard earned money that you use to pay your bills.
In addition to voting no on all of the above of these ballot measures, it is recommended that improvement is needed from the Legislature. Please contact your state representative or senator and encourage them to sponsor or co-sponsor a bill to align all state, city, county and school board elections so the core of taxpayers have a say in these tax hikes. If the average taxpayer has learned how to do more with less money in tough times, shouldn’t we expect the same of our school districts?
