Republic editorial: There’s a rational, long-term solution to this crisis.
Here’s the rational, long-term solution to the school-funding crisis that both left and right can embrace
Arizona is circling the drain. Teachers are ready to walk off the job with a primal scream at their state that funds schools at a lower rate now than it did in 2008.
Gov. Doug Ducey offered teachers a raise in a politically smart move that is widely recognized as fiscally unsustainable.
There is enough suspicion and ill will to turn this into a colossal disaster.
There is also agreement across the political spectrum that Arizona teachers need higher salaries and K-12 public schools need better funding. Business leaders see the need. The public sees it. This is the way out.
It begins with the acknowledgment that Arizona needs a sustainable, reliable funding source for education.
That is a hard sell in a state controlled by Republicans who believe in lowering taxes, not raising them.
Yet one of the state’s premier conservative thinkers — The Republic’s own columnist Robert Robb — has recognized both the needs of schools and a solution. He won’t tell you this, but we will — we his colleagues who work with him every day:
He is one of the sharpest, most creative policy minds in the state. That he happens to work at this newspaper is our happy circumstance.
As importantly, he has long been admired by Arizona leaders, and, in particular, conservative leaders.
He doesn’t tell us this; they do. Robb’s thinking was behind the recent extension of Prop. 301, locking in billions of dollars in education spending for another 20 years.
Now he has articulated an idea that is almost perfect in its simplicity:
1) Increase the state sales tax by 1 percent.
2) Increase the base level in the school-finance formula to take up all that additional revenue, and index the new base level for inflation.
It would raise about $1.2 billion for education — well above the estimated $580 million legislative analysts say the 20 percent raise Ducey is proposing would cost.
And it would be enough to increase the base level approximately $900 per pupil.
It wouldn’t threaten the fiscal discipline Ducey so prudently exercised in his first term and now imperils with his own proposed 20-percent pay hike.
Best of all, Robb’s approach would leave spending decisions where they belong: with local school districts.
It is a solution with a strong GOP precedent. It was Republican Gov. Jan Brewer who convinced a GOP-led Legislature to ask voters to approve a temporary 1 cent per dollar sales tax that largely went to boost school funding during the recession.
Voters agreed.
But when the sales tax ended, Ducey, as state treasurer, led the opposition to a flawed initiative measure to extend the tax, which included a distribution structure that was too complex.
Arizona is circling the drain. Teachers are ready to walk off the job with a primal scream at their state that funds schools at a lower rate now than it did in 2008.
Voters said no.
It’s time to go back to voters with a clean 1 cent per dollar sales-tax plan that will adequately fund public education. Give schools more money. Let local school boards decide how to spend it.
Leaders of the business community have floated the idea of financing an education ballot initiative. They should get behind this idea instead.
Lawmakers should refer the measure to the ballot now for either the 2018 general election or for a special election in the spring of 2019.
The Constitution, while prohibiting voter initiatives in odd years, allows lawmakers to refer to the ballot when they so desire. Lawmakers would need only a simple majority.
Further, a referendum bypasses the governor and goes directly to voters. A governor doesn’t get the opportunity to sign or veto. So, his opposition to the idea isn’t the last word.
Let’s get this done.
Our schools should not have to wait much longer to restore funding for school repairs, buses and books. And that’s where the courage of lawmakers from left and right can make a difference.
Conservatives will find that this pinches their ideological aversion to taxes. But this would allow the voters to decide for themselves whether they want to finally solve this huge funding shortfall.
Also, if ever there was an emergency, it is now. Fail to act, and we’ll all be dealing with a teacher-parent rebellion perhaps for years to come. Do we really want to endure the off-and-on switch of school strikes?
Progressives will point out that sales taxes hit the poor the hardest. Those Democrats will need to bite the bullet. A sales tax is the only feasible way to make this happen. Complicate the funding formula and you exponentially complicate the politics. Besides, the poor will be the biggest winners of betterfunded public schools.
What’s more, Democrats may also see little advantage in helping the GOP get through this crisis. But if that’s a hang-up, maybe it’s time to ask why you entered public service.
We expect our lawmakers to solve our problems. The state of Arizona faces a giant dilemma. We don’t know whether our schools will stay open. We don’t know whether the fighting and dissension will continue into next year and the next.
Both sides should move past politics. And that includes teachers. Time to get behind this rational approach to pump money into education.
It’s simple. It’s smart. And it’s the best way out.
If you agree, let us know. Better yet, let your elected officials know that you want them to embrace this common-sense solution.