Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Given the seriousness with which the AASBO Board of Directors took our recent action to withdraw as a plaintiff in the capital funding lawsuit, we felt it was important to take this opportunity to reiterate some facts and re-emphasize our position with regard to the lawsuit.

During the 2008 economic crisis, some Arizonans lost their jobs or their homes, or both. With revenues down, the state budget was drastically cut, and education funding took a beating.

When 60,000 students are without a full-time, certified teacher due to our state’s crushing teacher shortage, Arizona is clearly not living up to its obligation of providing a quality public education to our children.

As superintendent of the Buckeye Elementary School District, the seventh fastest growing city in the United States, I support and thank Gov. Doug Ducey for his efforts to continue to restore K-12 funding cut during the Great Recession.

Based on a recent poll we released, it seems like we are getting closer to reaching universal support for additional education funding than we’ve ever been – currently, 78 percent of Arizonans agree our schools need more. Put in other words, about four out of every five Arizonans see a need for more public school funding.

As I watch Governor Ducey declare a statewide health emergency in response to the opioid overdose epidemic, I feel that it is my duty to speak out.

In a time of extreme partisanship, national division, and increasing intolerance toward others, Scottsdale Representative Jay Lawrence is proposing a bill, HB2032, which would INCREASE the animosity and tribalism in our local communities by requiring local elections to be partisan.

Many people are actively worried about global warming. And it frustrates them that skeptics and “deniers” refuse to acknowledge the “science” of such an urgent, manmade problem.

Like so much of our nation’s critical infrastructure, our country’s air traffic control system is obsolete. For the two million Americans and thousands of Arizonans who fly every day, the failure to modernize the way we fly has real consequences.

Affluent families could afford to buy homes in expensive neighborhoods with high-quality schools. As for everyone else, we were at the mercy of our local district school. Students stuck in failing schools had no escape.