By Wayne Schutsky, Nick Phillips, Nathan Brown, and Camryn Sanchez | Arizona Capitol Times
education funding plan proposed at the Arizona Legislature would revamp the state’s funding formula for public districts and charter schools – but critics argue the proposal would not benefit all students equally.
The House Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing Monday morning on a strike-everything amendment to Senate Bill 1269, proposed by Rep. Michelle Udall, R-Mesa, that would raise base-level school aid by 2.5% above inflation and boost the Transportation Support Level by 30% while getting rid of the Transportation Revenue Control Limit over five years. It would replace results-based funding with new “achievement-based” weights and get rid of the teacher experience index and additional teacher compensation monies to make up for the increased aid.
Udall, who is a teacher and heads the House Education Committee, said her proposal would mean money is distributed more equally between districts. She said there is a hierarchy now, with small school districts getting the most per pupil and districts that can’t pass bonds or overrides at the bottom.
“The main goal was to raise them up, that lowest group, and to get them to where they would not be so low anymore,” she said.
This would be achieved, she said, by letting them opt into state additional assistance with the approval of their governing boards and voters to get the same amount of money as charter schools. Using this formula would raise property taxes in a district – districts that do it would be allowed to levy a higher Qualifying Tax Rate for the purpose of basic state aid formula calculations – but they would then be forbidden from using other property tax-raising tools such as bonds and overrides to supplement their budgets.
