How insufficient funding impacts area youth

All areas of education in Yuma are feeling the squeeze of limited resources — teaching, support services, buildings, training, materials, extracurricular activities. After years of budget cuts, ours schools have been forced to get creative to make ends meet. Some districts have delayed much-needed building repairs, and many struggle to attract and retain teachers.

A lack of funding is a familiar refrain. Our schools need more dollars to ensure students have the educators, support staff and materials they need to learn. But what does that actually mean? When school leaders petition lawmakers for additional resources, what’s the potential impact to individual students?

For the youngest students in our community, the recent loss of federal grant dollars will mean that hundreds of students go without quality early learning opportunities. The preschool program in Somerton School District was a recipient of a federal grant aimed at children from low income families who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to attend preschool. After outfitting specialized classrooms on each school campus and training educators to be specialists in early childhood education, the grant ended and was replaced with an entirely different program. This loss of funding means that nearly 600 Yuma-area youth won’t be able to attend full-day preschool. These children and their families will be impacted by the loss of quality early learning programs that shouldn’t rely on grant funding in the first place.

At the other end of the educational spectrum, Arizona Western College is a major provider of workforce training programs. Such courses of study

— which include nursing, radiologic technology and justice studies — are heavily reliant on Proposition 301 revenue. Even though the programs are vital for our community to provide a qualified workforce and attract new business to the area, the funding mechanisms are unstable depending on economic conditions. Without this funding, local students would need to travel and incur more student debt to pursue their professional training, or go without it and the long-term benefits it brings.

Additional funding from the state would allow AWC to expand new and much-needed programs, such as medical assisting or manufacturing. This would go a long way to getting more Yuma-area young people into good jobs and would boost our entire economy.

Many Yuma schools have also experienced the impact of decreased capital funding. These dollars, provided by the state, can cover everything from textbooks and curriculum to building maintenance and school buses. But in today’s budget climate, districts often rely on voter-passed bonds and overrides to cover these necessary costs. For instance, a few years ago when Somerton School District needed to replace its curriculum, the cost was $1 million. For a district that only receives $150,00 per year in district additional assistance, the remaining amount had to be pulled from other areas.

Last year, Gov. Ducey committed to the full restoration of $352 million in district and charter additional assistance over five years, beginning last year with a $100 million allocation. The governor’s FY20 budget proposal keeps the $100 million and includes an additional $68 million. This funding restoration has the potential to free up dollars for school districts to support other priorities. Until then, the need for more dollars remains great.

In the Yuma Union High School District, Ready Now Yuma is helping to prepare high schoolers for college and a career. But the teacher enrichment opportunities and rigorous curriculum made available through the program is only available thanks to generous financial support from Helios Education Foundation. While it isn’t likely that the funding from Helios will go away, it begs the question of how much schools and districts should be forced to rely on philanthropy and grants to provide an excellent education for our students. And what about the schools that aren’t fortunate enough to receive outside funding or pass a local bond or override?

Led by Expect More Arizona, a team of more than 80 organizations recently came together to create the Roadmap for P-20 Education Funding. It’s a guide with short, mid and long-term priorities for education funding. Among the short-term priorities are raising teacher pay, improving access to quality child care and securing more funds for K-12 school building construction and maintenance.

But none of these will come to pass without your input. Yuma needs to unite behind this vision and let our elected leaders know where we stand. To do that, visit the Roadmap page at ExpectMoreArizona.org/ roadmap and use the “show your support” tool. Raising the quality of our schools will improve the lives of our students and boost everyone’s quality of life as the economy strengthens.

The Yuma Education Advocacy Council is a local collaboration between community leaders and Expect More Arizona to advance a shared vision for education in Yuma and the state. We all believe that every child deserves an excellent education — every step of the way. Find the Council on Facebook at www.facebook. com/YEACAZ/.