Speech didn’t include new education proposals

Gov. Doug Ducey stayed mostly mum on any new plans for education in his 2019 State of the State address.

In Monday’s speech, the governor talked mostly about programs and initiatives he’s rolled out before, such as the Arizona Teacher’s Academy and his school safety plan. He did not propose any new funding plans, sticking to his 20 by 2020 plan and doubling

down on his promise for no tax hikes.

Education advocates say it is not enough.

Ducey said he would continue to “hold the line” on raising taxes, signaling a lack of support for any educationrelated tax increases, possibly like the one state Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, proposed before the legislative session even started.

The governor didn’t address the possibility of finding new revenue streams for education.

He did pledge to keep his promise to raise teachers’ salaries by 20 percent by 2020.

“It was just eight months ago we delivered a 20 percent pay raise for hardworking teachers,” he said. “These are raises teachers earned and they are raises we are going to fulfill and protect.”

Ducey is halfway there, with last year’s 10 percent raise. This year, he’ll need to add $165 million to the budget for teacher pay to stick to that promise.

Critics say Ducey’s 20 percent raise proposal doesn’t go far enough to make teacher pay in Arizona competitive with other states — and public schools need more money to fix problems beyond teachers raises.

“I’m very disappointed in the State of the State,” said Dana Wolfe Naimark, president and CEO of Children’s Action Alliance. “I heard almost nothing that would secure what Arizona students need for public education and what our economy needs for our future. It feels like empty promises for future security.”

Naimark said the state needs a dedicated funding stream to secure the future of the public K-12 education system.

“All over the state, people are calling for significant, dedicated, new investments,” she said. “It’s a bipartisan call. It’s CEOs, it’s voters of both parties, it’s community and education leaders. And the fact that (Ducey) is completely ignoring that and saying that he will not consider making new investments with new dedicated funding streams is very disturbing.”

She does, however, agree with the governor’s proposal to add money to the state’s Rainy Day Fund, money lawmakers could use in the event of a recession or revenue shortfall.

Ducey re-emphasized his commitment to a school safety plan he introduced last year, which failed in the Legislature.

The plan would nearly double the amount of money Arizona gives school districts to hire on-campus police officers, called school resource officers. It also calls for more school counselors.

“We know when a police officer is around, it makes things safer,” he said during the address. “Who do we call whenever there’s trouble? Our brave men and women in blue. And that’s why we’re including enough dollars to put a cop on every campus that needs one.”

The National Rifle Association endorsed the plan last year.

Anabel Maldonado, an organizer with ACLU Arizona, said officers often end up on school campuses with more students of color, who are disciplined at higher rates than white students.

Often, she said, the organization sees students treated like criminals by police officers, which does not create a safe and supportive learning environment.

“If we’re going to protect our students, we need to protect them and not criminalize them,” she said. “We’re treating our students as criminal suspects from the get-go.”

Jordan Harb, a senior at Mountain View High School in Mesa, is with the student-led March For Our Lives organization, a grassroots effort to prevent school shootings formed in the aftermath of the February shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.

He attended the address and said he’s optimistic that the governor is talking about school safety, but that work remains.

“We are very welcome to the fact that the governor’s plan does include money for counseling, but we’re going to try to push that to a whole new level,” he said.

Harb said he met with GOP legislators and will continue to talk to lawmakers to push school safety measures focusing on mental and emotional support in schools.