The coffers for the pro-Prop 204 campaign continue to grow. The ASBA’s “work around” dropped $50,000 early this month, according to the Yellow Sheet, in addition to the $40,000 that the group contributed in June.
The “work around,” Friends of ASBA, is joined by We Build Arizona, a coalition of construction and design-related groups, which “also forked out $50,000 on Aug. 21, and then another $50,000 on Aug. 30,” according to the YS. “That’s in addition to the $257,000 the construction industry already contributed to the “yes” campaign.
Proponents of Prop 204 cite a “recent study conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C.-based left-leaning research group that said Arizona holds the worst record in the country in reducing the K-12 budget between FY08 and FY13,” reported the YS. “The TV ad doesn’t mention that the cuts took place during the worst years of the recession, when lawmakers grappled with a multiyear, multibillion-dollar deficit.”
The initiative calls for the permanent 1% increase in the state’s sales tax (Transaction Privilege Tax) rate to become effective May 31, 2013. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2014, the measure directs the proceeds from the sales tax with twelve different earmarks including construction, hence the support of the trade unions.
The AEA and the ASBA are often on the same side of education issues, primarily attempting to prevent school reform measures.
The Arizona School Boards Association is prohibited by law from making campaign contributions to ballot measures after years of using their position and the taxpayers’ money to influence elections to serve their special interest. However, in traditional ASBA style, they created the “work-around” of the law.
In 2011, the Arizona legislature passed a law, H2002, which prevented public money from being laundered into a campaign. In past years, the ASBA which is funded by the dues of public governmental entities, made sizeable contributions in support of Prop 100 and in opposition to the 2010 First Things First sweep, according to the Yellow Sheet.
Claiming that they exercised “forward thinking,” the ASBA founded the non-profit, Friends of ASBA, to fund their preferred ballot measure campaigns. Now the group can launder money to the Quality Education and Jobs initiative, through their new exempt organization.
In the Tucson Unified School District, Dr. Mark Stegeman fought and won a tough battle to not renew the district’s membership in the National School Board Association. Other Board members fought hard to maintain membership due in large part to the availability of travel opportunities to seminars and conventions across the country.
However, Alexandre Sugiyama, Stegeman’s fellow TUSD Board member, told the Tucson Weekly that he wants the district’s Board to do get more involved in the ASBA, he said, the Arizona School Boards Association ranks boards based on how much training they do. “We need to look more closely at those who have reached gold status. I think we should work on this, and do more training.”
The ASBA is primarily controlled by school district superintendents across the state, not the duly elected school board members. The orientation trainings provided to school board members upon election or appointment guarantee cooperation from school board members with superintendents. In those rare instances when the training does not produce the desire cooperative attitude in rogue school board members, the ASBA provides interventions.
The ASBA can also be counted on to present awards for excellence to any school board facing bad press. At the same time that the Sunnyside School District in Tucson was under investigation for exploiting children in their bond ballot measure, the ASBA awarded them one of their highest honors.
Related articles:
TUSD’s “Lessons from Geese” retreat