AEA | Arizona Capitol Times

Ballot measure to tax the rich for K-12 funding launched

Mesa High School teacher Joshua Buckley explains Friday why he and David Lujan, director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, are proposing a large surcharge on income taxes paid by state residents who earn the most money to fund public education (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer)

A coalition of teachers, parents and education advocates led by the Center for Economic Progress, a progressive public policy group, launched an effort Friday to raise income taxes on wealthy Arizonans to pay for the state’s public education.

The proposal, dubbed the Invest in Education Act, would increase the state’s 4.54-percent personal income tax rate to 8 percent for those who earn more than $250,000 or whose household income reaches more than $500,000, and would double the rate to 9 percent for individuals who earn more than $500,000 or whose household income is greater than $1 million.

Under current law, someone with a taxable income of $600,000 pays $25,162. That same individual would pay $14,200 more if the measure is adopted.

Consultants for the campaign estimate the proposal would generate $690 million annually in new revenue.

The coalition announced the ballot initiative on the second day of Red for Ed rallies at the state Capitol as schools statewide remained closed during mass walkouts.

Center for Economic Progress Director David Lujan and teacher Joshua Buckley, who will chair the Invest in Education Committee, refused to take any questions on Friday. They told reporters questions would be answered on Monday.

“Rather than lead, the politicians who run the state Capitol have spent years causing this crisis, choosing to serve donors and lobbyists while ignoring our students,” Buckley said in a brief statement after filing the initiative. “And when we the people have forced them to confront this crisis from time to time, we have only ever gotten half-measures and promises they never intended to keep.”

The measure would also designate 60 percent of the revenue from the tax hike for teacher salaries and the remaining 40 percent for operations, including full-day kindergarten and pay raises for student support employees as applicable uses for the funds.

Governing boards would be required to seek employee input on plans for the use of the additional dollars, and the act would define who is a teacher and who is support staff.

After Gov. Doug Ducey released his 20 percent teacher pay raise by 2020 plan, some in the Red for Ed movement questioned who among them count for such raises and criticized the plan for leaving out support staff.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce came out against the proposal less than an hour after it was filed with the Secretary of State’s Office.

“It is never a good time to raise income taxes on small businesses and their employees; that would just create a drag on the state’s overall economy,” said President and CEO Glenn Hamer in a statement. “The tax brackets that would be targeted under this initiative historically have the most volatile collections, with wild dips in economic downturns, which would put teacher pay at terrible risk.

“Should this measure to dramatically hike income taxes secure a spot on the ballot, we will oppose it strongly, and we will urge Arizona voters to do the same.”

The effort’s launch came a day after an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Arizona teachers, students and other supporters marched on the state Capitol to demand better pay for teachers and all public education employees, increased per pupil funding and no new tax cuts until funding was restored to the public education system.

And it also comes weeks after the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, and other education groups gathered in early April to discuss going to the voters.

In a text to the Arizona Capitol Times, AEA President Joe Thomas said the state’s largest teachers’ union is a partner in the coalition.

Both the income tax increase and a sales tax increase were discussed at that time.

The Arizona School Boards Association was part of the April talks with AEA, and lobbyist Chris Kotterman told the Arizona Capitol Times the coalition leaned toward the income tax option.

ASBA, though, was not enthusiastic about going that route.

Kotterman said such a proposal would just be too big of a request in Arizona when the political winds typically prevail against such ideas.

Though ASBA would not come out against an income tax initiative, Kotterman said, the organization’s perspective was that it would draw too much outside money and outside pressure against it to ultimately pass.

Petitions for ballot measures are due on July 5, giving AEA just over two months to collect 150,642 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

Current state aid to K-12 schools is $5.39 billion. That compares with $5.15 billion a decade ago.

But in that same time, nearly 79,000 youngsters have been added to the system, bringing enrollment up about 1.1 million.

So the actual aid per student has $4,949 a decade ago to $4,760 now.

What really makes a difference, though, is those dollars have not kept pace with inflation. Once that is factored in, legislative budget staffers say the money per student is worth $1,000 less than in 2008.

Multiply that by 1.1 million students and that’s the $1 billion educators say is has been taken from schools.

Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services contributed to this report.

Grassroots teachers’ push sidelines union in pay dispute

Arizona Educators United spokesman Noah Karvelis stands beside dozens of teachers and public education advocates protesting on April 10 as Gov. Doug Ducey gave his monthly KTAR interview. (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)

Arizona teachers are done, fed up, over it.

They are willing to take action for their demands – 20 percent raises, competitive pay, additional per pupil funding and no new tax cuts until it happens – and they don’t want to wait much longer.

At 40,000 strong, Arizona Educators United pushed aside the Arizona Education Association, the political group typically charged with imposing their will at the Legislature.

They’re showing the union and others how to organize.

Arizona Educators United and the Red for Ed movement invited public education employees and their supporters to vent their frustrations publicly on Facebook. Within 24 hours, thousands had joined the conversation and many asked the same question: Will Arizona be the next to strike?

At first, Tres Rios Elementary School music teacher Noah Karvelis only envisioned inspiring action in his own district – wearing red on a Wednesday in a show of solidarity. But the Facebook group he created did something no press conference or letter to the Legislature or impassioned call for change had managed to do before.

It harnessed the energy of teachers desperate for more, and its leaders have repeatedly warned that they will soon set a date to walk out of their classrooms and strike.

Their demands and the series of demonstrations at the Capitol with hundreds of teachers clad in red seemed to catch the attention of Gov. Doug Ducey and lawmakers, who offered plans to increase teacher salaries on April 12.

Karvelis (who doubles as campaign manager for Kathy Hoffman, a Democratic candidate for state superintendent of public instruction) said the roughly 40,000 members of the movement sweeping social media remain driven by their demands and a lack of faith in anyone but themselves to see that they’re met.

The Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest union representing about 20,000 public school employees, has taken a backseat, a supportive role, offering infrastructure and advice while Arizona Educators United leads the way forward.

“There are no political parties pulling the strings. There are no candidates pulling the strings or unions behind the scenes pushing agendas,” Karvelis said. “It’s just educators advocating on behalf of other educators and families and their students.”

And that’s where they found the “magic.”

“Something has changed here,” Karvelis said. “Some sort of dynamic has brought people back in to reengage.”

Arizona Education Association President Joe Thomas at a press conference Wednesday. (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer)

AEA President Joe Thomas called it a reawakening of public education employees and advocates, who have realized that “if we’re going to fix this, we have to fix it ourselves.”

The movement is bigger than AEA, he said, and the union has stepped aside in recent weeks to give Arizona Educators United the space to lead the way.

“It helps the individual recognize that the story of your classroom is what’s going to move people to action,” Thomas said. “Your story is the authentic story of what all of those policies look like in action.”

When teachers understand that, he said, they’ll understand they can leverage change.

Arizona teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Arizona elementary school teachers earned a median wage of $43,280 in 2017 and high school teachers $46,470, the third and sixth lowest in the nation, respectively. Adjusted for the local cost of living, federal figures show elementary teachers actually rank 49th in earnings and high school teachers 48th.

Most of the comments left on the group’s Facebook page have laid blame on Ducey and the Legislature’s perceived apathy toward teachers’ complaints.

But others have pointed to AEA and what some see as a history of ineffective actions.

Russ Cannizzaro, whose Facebook profile page indicated he is the education department chair at Tempe Union High School District, wrote, “The reason why we (are) near last in the nation for teachers’ salaries is because we are near last when it comes to doing anything about it.”

And Kasey Kerber summed up some of her peers’ fear that the window of opportunity is quickly shrinking: “Can we strike already? I feel like we’re a bunch of hamsters on a wheel.”

Thomas recalled a recent encounter with a man who said the union should be ashamed. The man told him the governor and the Legislature had been allowed to cut education funding on AEA’s watch.

But Thomas rejected that.

“They did that on all of our watch,” he said. “It wasn’t just AEA’s watch. It was every teacher in the state. You can’t just say one group or one entity let that happen. We all let that happen.”

But Karvelis said AEA taking a backseat in this moment has been part of the dynamic that seems to be working.

AEA members and non-members make up Arizona Educators United’s ranks. Democrats and Republicans. District and charter school employees.

Karvelis said they don’t align with a specific candidate or a specific stance, and that’s fine. That’s what makes it work.

That’s what it has taken to gain the trust of people all across the state.

“They saw that educators and teachers were standing up,” Karvelis said. “They felt safe in that place, and that’s been powerful for us.”

Jennifer Samuels marches with dozens of her peers, students and other supporters of the Arizona Educators United movement on April 10. (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)

Jennifer Samuels, an eighth grade English teacher at Desert Shadows Middle School, marched outside of the KTAR 92.3 studio on April 10 while Ducey gave his monthly interview. Her sixth grade daughter joined her in matching red shirts, carrying signs as temperatures hit 100 degrees – the first triple-digit day of the year.

Samuels has been teaching in Arizona for six years. She said she works with about 90 kids every day, and she’s fighting for them. It’s her obligation, she said.

She doesn’t want to strike, but she said she will because “the short-term plan of leaving our class for a little while is so much better than” the alternative of sitting idle.

She’s a member of AEA and said the union has done all it could with what they have.

But she said it took Arizona Educators United to give teachers the courage to rise up.

“Every day, the people involved in Red for Ed are escalating our action,” she said. “Every day we get stronger. Every week we get stronger. As Noah Karvelis says, our backs are against the walls.”

If they’re going to strike, they have an ever-shrinking window of time to do it while it can still make a difference. The budget is already being negotiated, and the Legislature is nearing the 100th day of session.

But Karvelis said all options are still on the table, including a walk-out.

“We have to win no matter what,” he said, adding that if it does not get done this year, they’ll start next school year by taking action.

For now, Arizona Educators United leaders are waiting to see what Ducey will do.

“If they don’t respond to the citizens, if they don’t respond to the educators, they’re making a terrible mistake,” he said. “We’ve organized 40,000 people who need answers. To ignore that is to ignore your duty as an elected representative, especially a governor.”

Ducey’s office did not return requests for comment.

Plaintiffs push ahead with capital funding challenge against state

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit over school maintenance funding stand behind Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest attorney Tim Hogan. Standing on the steps of Glendale Landmark Elementary School on Monday, Hogan argued the state is not living up to its constitutional obligations to properly fund school maintenance and construction, allowing the burden to instead fall to districts' taxpayers. (Photo by Katie Campbell, Arizona Capitol Times) — Plaintiffs in a lawsuit over school maintenance funding stand behind Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest attorney Tim Hogan. Standing on the steps of Glendale Landmark Elementary School on Monday, Hogan argued the state is not living up to its constitutional obligations to properly fund school maintenance and construction, allowing the burden to instead fall to districts’ taxpayers. (Photo by Katie Campbell, Arizona Capitol Times)

The Arizona Association of School Business Officials may be out, but the lawsuit over school capital funding needs marches on.

Representatives of the Arizona School Boards Association and the Arizona Education Association, which are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed by the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, said their organizations are not satisfied with Gov. Doug Ducey’s proposal to add $250 million in new spending to K-12 education.

“That doesn’t mitigate much, if anything, that the lawsuit’s really about,” said AEA President Joe Thomas. “The lawsuit’s not about a dollar amount.”

In their lawsuit, education groups, school districts and taxpayers argued that it’s the state’s obligation to fund school construction and maintenance and not put that burden on local taxpayers. The Arizona Supreme Court has affirmed that legal responsibility in three separate rulings in the past.

Thomas conceded money will facilitate a solution in the end, but said schools’ needs must be met for the long-term, not just in the more immediate future.

He noted Ducey’s proposal for fiscal 2019, which includes $88 million for new school construction, $35 million for building grants, $34 million to make a teacher pay increase permanent, and $100 million in additional assistance for capital expenses like textbooks and buses, is just that – a suggestion to the Legislature with nothing set in stone. And Thomas has been disappointed before.

“We’re in it to win, and we believe we will win it,” Thomas said. “Anybody who believes that they can buy off all the plaintiffs – I think they underestimate the resolve of the people working closest with students.”

Chris Kotterman, ASBA’s director of governmental affairs, said ASBA supports Ducey’s proposal but is also moving forward as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

He said ASBA will help the governor’s plan come to fruition at the Legislature. But the association considers the lawsuit to be “sort of a separate track,” something he said had been in the works before the governor took office, given the association’s sentiment that the school capital funding system was in trouble and the state was risking running afoul of its constitutional obligations.

“We didn’t make a deal with the governor – the lawsuit for his spending plan – and he hasn’t approached us about that formally,” Kotterman added.

But the motivation behind the effort to settle the lawsuit and efforts in court to convince a judge she has no standing on the matter are obvious to Thomas.

“We can’t pretend that this isn’t going to be an election issue,” the AEA official said. “That’s why there is interest right now to have a stay, to settle the lawsuit with a dollar amount, to look like we’ve accomplished something.”

Still, he does not begrudge AASBO for its decision to trust Ducey and move on. Another plaintiff, a taxpayer, also removed herself from the lawsuit.

The Glendale Elementary School District had the unfortunate distinction of being the lawsuit’s poster child of sorts when it was announced, and its schools continue to show signs of decay, according to Associate Superintendent Mike Barragan.

Barragan said he’s grateful to see the governor offer “a step in the right direction,” but his district, too, remains a plaintiff and hopes to “create an a-ha moment for not only our community, our taxpayers, but also our policymakers.”

Barragan said he may not understand the ex-plaintiffs’ decision to leave the lawsuit, but he respects it.

“Last time I checked, we all have free will,” he said.

Senate president to kill highly supported ELL bill

Senate President Steve Yarbrough (R-Chandler) (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)

A bill to eliminate the state’s four-hour-a-day English language learning requirement for students whose second language is English has reached the Senate with nearly unanimous support, but Senate President Steve Yarbrough may kill it.

Yarbrough told the Arizona Capitol Times on April 5 that he likely wouldn’t allow House Bill 2435 to be heard on the Senate floor. He said he was around for the crafting of the four-hour blocks, and he believes the model is working.

ELL students are currently required to have four hours of language instruction per day, but HB 2435 would instead require the State Board of Education to adopt models devoting far less time to English instruction.

Under the bill, students in Kindergarten through sixth grade would instead spend two hours per day and seventh through 12th graders would spend 100 minutes per day on language learning.

Yarbrough may have found an unlikely ally in his dissent.

Freshman Rep. Geraldine Peten, D-Goodyear, cast the only no vote so far for HB 2435.

“You’re reducing this intensive instruction based on what information, what data, what best practices?” she said. “Where’s your evidence that two hours is going to be better than the four?”

Peten said she worked at the Arizona Department of Education as a class-action lawsuit filed in 1992, Flores v. Arizona, raged. The lawsuit alleged that the four hours a day devoted to language learning deprived ELL students of adequate learning in other subject areas.

In 2000, Judge Raner Collins of the U.S. District Court in Tucson ruled in Flores’ favor, finding the state’s funding for ELL students was arbitrary.

The case ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said the classes were improperly funded.

The case then returned to Collins, who ruled in favor of the state on the issue of the four-hour blocks, finding that the model didn’t violate state law even while conceding some students would be left behind in other subject areas.

An appeal was made with the support of the federal government, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas commented that the state would never satisfy the feds.

Peten said the current four-hour model was the result of a long process of developing a curriculum and criteria to ensure students became proficient in English.

Each student is different, she said, but the intensive instruction model was determined to work best. In any case, she said it was a decision best left to educators, not legislators.

But advocates of the bill say it will end the segregation of ELL students from their English-speaking peers.

Marisol Garcia, vice president of the Arizona Education Association, said the bill will also require the state to formalize the process of tracking students’ success and analyze results to determine the most effective models.

Garcia said the currently mandated four-hour block devoted to English language development was intended to encourage growth but simply has not.

“We have a good chunk, almost an entire generation, of students that haven’t been able to hit the goals that they need to hit in order to graduate on time or graduate period,” she said.

Garcia said the model under HB 2435 would be similar to that used for students with special education needs who have individualized education plans, or IEPs. Those students may receive special time away from their peers without IEPs, but they are also reintegrated with those students throughout the day.

Similarly, Garcia said the bill would allow ELL students to spend more time with their peers who speak English fluently.

“If I moved to Japan and wanted to learn Japanese, I wouldn’t want to be in a room with other Americans who are trying to learn Japanese,” she explained. “I would want to be integrated with Japanese fluently speaking people and be able to pick up the language from there.”

Teachers end short-lived strike

Arizona Educators United organizer Noah Karvelis addresses reporters and Red for Ed demonstrators after calling teachers back to their classrooms beginning on May 3 - if the Legislature adopts a budget that includes Gov. Doug Ducey's proposed 20 percent teacher pay raises by 2020. (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times) — Arizona Educators United organizer Noah Karvelis addresses reporters and Red for Ed demonstrators after calling teachers back to their classrooms beginning on May 3 – if the Legislature adopts a budget that includes Gov. Doug Ducey’s proposed 20 percent teacher pay raises by 2020. (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)

The Arizona Educators United and Arizona Education Association called for an end to the Red for Ed strike today, leaving most of their demands on the table.

As the fourth day of demonstrations at the state Capitol came to a close, AEU organizer Noah Karvelis and AEA President Joe Thomas called for teachers and public education employees to return to school starting on May 3 if Legislators adopt a budget by then.

That means the strike will have lasted five days when schools reopen. Strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma lasted for about twice as long.

“Our fight is not over,” said Arizona Educators United organizer Rebecca Garelli at a press conference surrounded by Red for Ed demonstrators. “We have options, but it is time to get back to our students and back to our classrooms.”

The announcement came after some districts had already announced their intentions to reopen on Thursday and dozens of teachers speaking before the House Appropriations Committee urged legislators to oppose the budget.

Teachers later shut down the Senate Appropriations Committee by chanting that the budget wasn’t good enough.

AEU organizer Noah Karvelis said the group’s fight was not over, and insisted public education employees would not be returning to work with nothing to show for their efforts.

He specifically claimed the extension of the 0.6-cent sales tax for education funding under Proposition 301, which Karvelis said Gov. Doug Ducey had shown no interest in supporting before the Red for Ed movement.

Ducey has signaled his support for an extension of Prop. 301 and even an openness to alterations, including an expansion of the tax as far back as March 2017.

But more significantly to AEU, Ducey proposed 20 percent raises for teachers by 2020, including 9 percent in the approaching fiscal year and five percent in each of the two years following.

That proposal now included in the budget currently being debated by lawmakers is a far cry from Ducey’s previous promises of just 1 percent, one-time raises.

But compared to the list of demands demonstrators have been championing, they are leaving with little to show for their efforts.

Both Ducey and the Legislature ignored four other demands: competitive pay for all public education employees, restoration of public education funding to 2008 levels, no new tax cuts until per pupil funding reached the national average, and ongoing teacher raises until that, too, reached the national average.

“The win isn’t there until we’ve restored the $1.1 billion that have been cut,” Karvelis said.

Teachers union takes Ducey to task for pay raises for aides

Amy Ball, a kindergarten teacher in the Madison Elementary School District, denounces significant pay raises Gov. Doug Ducey gave his aides while signing a state budget that included 1-percent raises over two years to teachers. (Photo by Jenna Miller/Arizona Capitol Times) — Amy Ball, a kindergarten teacher in the Madison Elementary School District, denounces significant pay raises Gov. Doug Ducey gave his aides while he signed a state budget that included 1-percent raises over two years to teachers. (Photo by Jenna Miller/Arizona Capitol Times)

Arizona’s teachers union called for a 20 percent pay raise for all educators in the state, arguing that if it’s good enough for Gov. Doug Ducey’s deputies, it’s good enough for teachers.

The demand by the Arizona Education Association follows a report by the Arizona Republic that Ducey gave some of his top staff and agency directors raises of up to 20 percent, some for promotions, others as a reward for expanded roles, the governor’s office said.

The raises came at a time when Ducey has preached budget austerity and sought minimal raises that teachers have described as demoralizing. In January, Ducey proposed a 5-percent raise for teachers over two years — four-tenths of a percent annually — but eventually signed a budget including 1 percent raises for the next two years, as pushed for by legislators.

Joe Thomas, president of the AEA, called the reported raises the latest insult to teachers by Ducey, and added the union will now actively work to gather support for a citizen initiative to boost teacher pay.

Given the unlikelihood that the governor and Republican lawmakers would approve such a spending increase, which Thomas estimates would cost roughly $750 million to give all teachers a 20 percent raise, it will likely take a citizen-proposed law to make the pay hike a reality.

“Maybe that’s it. Maybe people are done trusting Gov. Ducey. Maybe people are done trusting the House and the Senate of the Arizona Legislature,” Thomas said. “Maybe it is time for the citizens to get together and trust themselves, because they know the outcomes they want, and they’re not afraid to invest in the classroom, and they’re not running for higher office.”

The governor’s office attacked the Republic’s findings in a press release sent roughly an hour before the AEA’s press conference, and dismissed the union’s demand as a “partisan exercise.” Ducey spokesman Patrick Ptak wrote that the governor’s office is doing more with fewer staffers — 10 less than before Ducey took office — and the expanded roles of those still on staff merits pay increases.

However, the budget for the governor’s office has not increased since 2008, Ptak wrote.

“In most cases, raises were given through promotion with expanded roles and responsibilities using existing dollars,” he wrote.

Teachers were not moved by those words, as they, too, have seen their duties in and outside the classroom expand, but with little to show for it in their paychecks.

The 1-percent pay bump for teachers this year, which many schools are paying as a stipend given the uncertainty with which state lawmakers allocated the funds, amounts to $400 for instructors in the Madison School District, according to kindergarten teacher Amy Ball.

“It’s hard to convince my colleagues to continue staying in our profession when the state gives us a 1 percent salary increase,” Ball told reporters.

Classroom sizes have also grown in the Isaac School District, where social studies teacher Marisol Garcia works across the hall from a science teacher with 39 eighth graders in a classroom. Ten years ago, classes had about 10 less students per room, she said.

“I dare any of you to be in a room with 39 eighth graders and try and teach them anything about science, let alone be tested on science at the end of the year,” Garcia said. “We are now being held accountable to tests that none of us were taught how to administer.”

Thomas would not say how the AEA proposes funding such a significant spending increase, but insisted the funds are available in Arizona’s economy.

He did specify that a sales tax likely is not the way to go — Arizonans rejected a continuation of a sales tax for education in 2012, a proposition Ducey successfully campaigned against — but Thomas left open the possibility of exploring new revenue sources, and eliminating existing tax breaks.

“We have to test those revenue streams. The money should come from the people of Arizona,” he said.

Teachers won’t fall for governor’s claim of ‘new money’

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. It is unfair to put our students inside crumbling buildings, with not enough desks, trying to learn with outdated textbooks and technology. A decade of politicians slashing education budgets created this crisis. That’s why AEA and a coalition of education groups sued the state to adequately fund school capital needs. Our lawsuit is about forcing the state to come up with a real, long-term, and sustainable school funding solution.

We see the solution as creating a permanent, dedicated funding mechanism that ensures new schools are built before existing schools are overcrowded, older schools receive the repairs and upgrades they require to meet the needs of our students, and teachers and students have access to the latest technologies essential to competing in a 21st century economy.

Politicians seem to see the solution as buying off the plaintiffs so the lawsuit goes away, and with it, the dark cloud hanging over their hopes for re-election. They want to offer just enough money to address some of the needs some of our schools face for some of our students – but their proposals fall far short from providing what all our teachers and students need to be successful in every district in the state.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s plan follows a pattern that teachers and voters have become familiar with – cutting funds to schools, restoring some of it later, and then taking credit for providing schools “new money.” In his first year in office, the governor cut $99 million from universities, and then gave them back $27 million in bonding last year. He cut JTED funding by $30 million, then the next year proposed restoring it in one-time money spread out over three years. Instead of exaggerating required dollars as “new money,” the governor should acknowledge he is adding back most of the District Additional Assistance cuts he made in the 2016 budget.

Our state needs additional years of increased investment in our public schools, but our leaders also need to meet the requirements of Roosevelt v. Bishop by creating permanent, dedicated revenue so that every student can ride a safe bus, attend a quality school, and learn using the latest technology.

Settling for anything less prevents our students from the education they deserve.

— Joe Thomas is president of the Arizona Education Association and a high school government teacher from Mesa.

___________________________________________________________

The views expressed in guest commentaries are those of the author and are not the views of the Arizona Capitol Times.

The Breakdown, Episode 14: Enough is enough?

Members of Arizona Educators United protest on April 10 as Gov. Doug Ducey gives his weekly KTAR interview. Dozens of teachers, students and other public education advocates marched outside as the temperature in Phoenix reached 100 degree for the first time this year. (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)

Gov. Doug Ducey offered teachers a 20 percent raise by 2020, but will that be enough to satisfy their demands?

Leaders of Arizona Educators United took to Facebook to respond to the governor’s plan, pointing out Ducey had left out support staff and overall funding for public education.

Members of the grassroots movement who have been debating a potential strike are also raising questions of where the proposed funding will come from and how Ducey can ensure the plan remains in place in the years to come.

And all the while, the governor’s proposal is not yet a guarantee. The Legislator still has to approve it.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Breakdown on iTunes.

Music in this episode included “Little Idea,” “Creative Minds” and “Energy” by Bensound.

The Breakdown, Episode 15: The teachers have spoken

Teachers at Humphrey Elementary school participate in a state-wide walk-in prior to classes Wednesday, April 11, 2018, in Chandler, Ariz. Arizona teachers are demanding a 20 percent pay raise and more than $1 billion in new education funding. (AP Photo/Matt York) — Teachers at Humphrey Elementary school participate in a state-wide walk-in prior to classes Wednesday, April 11, 2018, in Chandler, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Public school employees voted last week, and they’ve decided to strike – but leadership behind the Red for Ed movement pumped the breaks.

They’ll walk out, Arizona Educators United organizer Noah Karvelis said, but not until Thursday, leaving Gov. Doug Ducey and lawmakers time to take action if they so choose.

But whether the elected officials at the Capitol will hear teachers’ call is yet to be seen. Ducey’s plan already threw budget talks into disarray, and they’d have to do some serious digging through the state coffers to find the money to fund AEU’s other demands.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Breakdown on iTunes.

Music in this episode included “Little Idea,” “Creative Minds” and “Energy” by Bensound.

The Breakdown, Episode 17: That’s a wrap

Striking teachers silently cheer using their hands to follow decorum on not clapping or verbally reacting from the Senate gallery while senators meet in Senate chambers on April 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Bob Christie)

Another session is in the books, but not without a fuss – or two.

Crowds of Red for Ed demonstrators watched as legislators in both chambers debated and eventually passed the budget, sometime providing their own input on the education bill in particular.

And the drama may not be over yet.

Decisions made by Gov. Doug Ducey and lawmakers from both parties are sure to come up on the campaign trail, and there’s whispers of another special session being called, this time on the governor’s school safety proposals.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Breakdown on iTunes.

Music in this episode included “Little Idea,” “Creative Minds” and “Energy” by Bensound.

Voices of the Red for Ed movement

A crowd of red-clad teachers, students and Red for Ed supporters could be seen from the top of a parking garage near Chase Field as they gathered there on April 26 before marching to the Arizona Capitol. (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)

The Arizona Educators United and Red for Ed movement drew an estimated 150,000 teachers, students and public school staff to the Capitol to demand more for education.

Those in favor of the strike were easy to spot, wearing red and carrying signs often critical of Gov. Doug Ducey and the Republican-controlled Legislature.

They came from across the Valley and beyond.

At 8 a.m. on Day 3, a school bus arrived from Nogales Unified School District, which is about three hours from the Capitol. On Day 4, indigenous educators who called themselves the Nahuacalli Educators Alliance played drums and conch shells at the foot of the historic Capitol building.

Some folks set up canopies for their schools or districts to provide shade for their colleagues as temperatures reached triple digits in the first days of the strike. And one canopy was even designated for mothers with children in tow, equipped with a diaper-changing station and power for breast pumps.

But some in the crowd did not feel represented by the demonstrators and their leaders. Others may have voted to strike, but did so still hoping it would never come to that.

Whatever their reasons for being there, these teachers, administrators and students came to the Capitol to make their voices heard.