Where’s business community on education funding?

Arizona schools are in crisis and are crying for leadership to establish a permanent revenue source for education. Who will champion this effort? Some will turn to elected leaders, expecting them to “do the right thing.”

This approach ignores two realities. First, it misses that the governor and many sitting in the Legislature were elected because they promised tax cuts. They shouldn’t break their word.

Second, the Legislature needs a twothirds majority to raise taxes.

The only solution for raising new revenue is a citizen initiative that will provide every Arizonan with the opportunity to put our children, teachers and schools first.

If volunteer groups can collect over 80,000 valid signatures for a citizen initiative inspired solely by their displeasure over “school choice” laws, an even broader coalition can act with even greater force to raise over $1 billion in new education funding.

In June, a group of Arizona CEOs articulated a well-thought-out plan to fully fund Gov. Doug Ducey’s education priorities. The proposal would create a dedicated 1.5-cent per dollar tax-revenue stream for Arizona’s public schools, generating more than 1 billion new dollars for our schools. The plan was quickly endorsed by Jim Swanson, Gov. Ducey’s appointed co-chairman of the Classrooms First Initiative Council and CEO of Kitchell Construction.

The 1.5 cent per dollar tax proposal would fund Ducey’s education priorities from his 2017 State of the State address:

Increasing teacher pay ($340 million).

Full-day kindergarten ($240 million).

Restoring Arizona’s K-12 capital funding formula ($300 million).

Professional development teachers ($20 million).

Construction trade workforce development grants ($20 million).

Funding for Arizona’s universities to keep tuition affordable ($190 million)

Permanently extending the 0.6 cent per dollar education-funding formula that expires in 2021 ($600 million)

A number of special interests are

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for pushing funding proposals that distract from Ducey’s vision and Arizona’s education priorities. If we lose our focus, we risk losing everything.

Recently, the Arizona Rural Schools Association, representing 13 legislative districts, 110 school districts and over 100,000 students, sent letters to the leadership of Greater Phoenix Leadership, Southern Arizona Leadership Council, Northern Arizona Leadership Alliance, and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce begging them to be champions for placing the 1.5 cent per dollar proposal on the ballot and fully funding Ducey’s education priorities. Their response? Cue the crickets...

Historically, Arizona’s approach to education reform has relied solely on school choice, without new funding, as the panacea for improvement. Our state has developed a school system among the most efficient in the world, but we have arrived at the limits of what efficiency — without funding — can accomplish. Nothing impacts the quality of a child’s education like the quality of the teacher. We’re seeing schools that can’t attract or retain teachers because we aren’t supporting our schools.

After nearly two decades, this governor-inspired, CEO-led proposal is the first and only one to be 100 percent focused on funding specific education goals and guaranteed to substantively move the needle for our children.

We can continue expecting more without adequate funding, or we can take action, by fulfilling Gov. Ducey’s education vision and answering the question, “Why not the best public education in Arizona?” Why not indeed.

As rural educators, we desperately need the business community to do more than just throw nice receptions and fund the development of tools to measure performance. We need Arizona’s business leadership to demonstrate leadership and fortitude by championing new revenue to fully fund Gov. Ducey’s education priorities to support Arizona’s children, families, schools and future economy.

Don German is executive director of the Arizona Rural Schools Association. Sean Rickert is superintendent of the Pima School District and serves on the board of “Why not the Best Public Education in Arizona?” Email them at seanrickert01@gmail.com.