School funds: this session's priority No. 1

PHOENIX – The new school construction program – the focus of last year’s Arizona Legislature – looks to cast a shadow over the upcoming session.

Republicans and Democrats have tagged education as their top priority as they attempt to figure out what should go on in classrooms created by the massive Students FIRST program.

And while they wrestle with issues like classroom size and vouchers, lawmakers also will have to deal with financing the program that made the state responsible for building new schools and repairing old ones.

The $400 million first-year costs of the program for Fair and Immediate Resources for Students Today were covered this fiscal year by a $500 million surplus. But that surplus is expected to dwindle significantly for 1999-2000.

That drop, coupled with tax-cut vows by Republicans, who control the House 40-20 and Senate 16-14, could lead to a series of showdowns in the 44th Arizona Legislature on balancing the budget. Those standoffs might not only lead to partisan sniping but could pit Republican Gov. Jane Hull against members of her own party.

Hull will recommend tomorrow in her State of the State address that $290 million in school construction bonds be issued for the next two years so money will be available for other programs.

But the top GOP legislators – House Speaker Jeff Groscost, R-Mesa, and Senate President Brenda Burns, R-Glendale – said they oppose borrowing.

“Clearly we have a serious, real deficit since we absorbed $400 million for school finance in the base budget,” said Senate Majority Whip Ann Day, R-Tucson. “I don’t think the Legislature likes the idea of having to bond again. . . . I think legislators prefer to pay as you go. However, doing it means there are going to be cuts.”

Day said Republicans want to continue the momentum of eight years of tax cuts by making modest tax reductions.

Hull and key Republican lawmakers announced in November they hope to trim the state’s portion of the vehicle license tax by $60 million to $90 million. The vehicle license tax – sliced by 16 percent last year – has become a popular target because residents immediately see its effects on their pocketbooks.

Democrats like Tucson Sen. George Cunningham say they will reluctantly agree to bonding if it’s needed to avoid draconian cuts.

But the Legislature should hold off on broad-based tax cuts, making only targeted business tax cuts that would bring more revenue into the state, he said.

“It is more prudent to meet basic obligations in the areas of education, health care and safety before we start with broad-based tax cuts,” he said.

With so much being invested in school construction, Hull and Republican legislators are calling for increased accountability from school districts.

A House bill sponsored by 20 Republicans calls for schools to comply with criteria from the state Board of Education based on test scores, discipline, academic achievement, and parent and teacher surveys.

If a school fails to comply with the standards, the board could intervene to the point of appointing a new district superintendent who would report to the board.

Hull said she will call for smaller class sizes – something that should help schools meet those standards – in her State of the State address.

“We’ve dealt with bricks and mortar; now it’s essential to see that every child can read by the third grade,” she said.

Some legislators hope this session will see support for education outside of public schools.

Rep. Dan Schottel, R-Tucson, chair of the House Education Committee, said he thinks a measure calling for school vouchers has a good chance of getting through the House. The Senate Democratic caucus reaffirmed its opposition to vouchers last week.

Hull said she supports vouchers, specifically State Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan’s proposal that children of low-income families be eligible for state vouchers to cover private school tuition. That would avoid the kind of situation Wisconsin fell into: Two-thirds of the children in that state who used vouchers to attend private school were already enrolled in private school and could afford the tuition.

Democrats and Republicans also are set to have dueling bilingual education bills.

Republicans intend to push a plan that allows non-English speaking students to take three years of bilingual classes. Once that time is up, state funding would end and the individual school districts would have to decide on how to fund the programs.

Sen. Joe Eddie Lopez, D-Phoenix, introduced a bill that calls for paying bilingual teachers an additional $2,000 a year and allowing parents to remove children from bilingual programs that are not working.

The bill already has met with resistance because it includes a measure to scrap the Arizona Instruments for Measuring Standards graduation exam – a test of the state’s standards that all Arizona high school students must pass to earn a diploma.

Sen. Ruth Solomon, D-Tucson, predicts the bill won’t even get a hearing because it calls for an increase in spending.

Nevertheless, “The debate will rage,” she said. “We have to reach some resolution – if we don’t the ballot measure will gain popularity.”

Last week a group, English for the Children Arizona, took out petitions for a ballot initiative that calls for scrapping the existing bilingual education program. A similar measure was approved in California last year.

Teachers will look to the Legislature this year for significant increases in the maintenance and operations budgets – the general operating funds that pay teachers’ salaries. This week, the national publication Education Week gave Arizona an “F” in education spending.

“The average per-pupil amount is in the pits compared to other states,” said Mary Kay Haviland, lobbyist for the Arizona Education Association.

Hull wants to see basic increases to the maintenance and operations budgets of K-12 education and plans to target key areas including special education for larger increases, said Jaime Molera, the governor’s policy adviser for education.

Hull also is backing changes in laws dealing with charter schools that will “take care of some of the loopholes in current law but does nothing to take away from the original intent of charters,” Molera said.

Charter schools are publicly funded schools established by individuals, groups, businesses or school districts that are free of much of the regulation traditional public schools face.

One proposal this session would eliminate one-third of the up- front money for new charter schools and move to a monthly funding allocation.

Other bills already proposed call for increased student privacy, possible drug testing and requiring students to put down damage deposits for textbooks and school equipment.



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