Within minutes of announcing the future release of her school funding proposal, the foes of Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas at the Arizona Republic, and elsewhere were questioning the wisdom of the recall effort currently being waged against her. Former critics praised the announcement and reveled in its attack on Arizona’s Legislature.
Douglas called for “the immediate appropriation, for this fiscal year, of $400 million.”
Douglas “revealed the first of many policy initiatives in her comprehensive AZ Kids Can’t Afford to Wait! Plan to fix Arizona’s education woes and turn our system into the best in the country,” in an announcement sent out on Friday, September 11. Douglas said she would “reveal” the “dozens of other policy initiatives” at a press conference at 4:30 p.m. on October 1.
Douglas claims that she developed her plan based on the input she received “for several months” on her We Are Listening Tour. “…the number one concern I heard was the lack of funding and support for teachers,” stated Superintendent Douglas in the press release. “After seeing revenues so far above forecasts just a few months into this fiscal year, I believe that Arizonans can no longer afford to wait to provide higher quality education to our children.”
Arizona Department of Education spokesperson Charles Tack said in an email, “The dollar amount was developed based on what the state’s revenues look like and what is available in the rainy day fund. The Superintendent believes that we need to take advantage of those resources now as schools and teachers are in such desperate need of funding.”
Tack wrote that there were no requirements for the monies except that it be “spent on raising teacher salaries or hiring additional teachers to help reduce classroom sizes.” If, and it is a big if, the recipients adhere to those requirements, it would go a long way to reducing Arizona’s teacher shortage.
Because we know that increased funding does not necessarily improve classroom performance, and we know that a highly motivated and effective teacher in a small classroom is the surest way to give students the best chance for academic success, Douglas’ proposal makes sense.
Douglas’ cheap shot at legislators did not. She stated in her release, “I applaud the efforts of the Governor and the Legislature to increase overall funding and to focus on classroom spending. However, the eight year olds who were trying to read when the “temporary” cut to the 2 percent increase was made in 2009 will all graduate or drop out before having their funding restored under all the current plans being considered.”
She claims that the State failed “an entire generation of children for whom over $1 billion dollars of education was not provided.” She asks, “How many more children must suffer the same fate before the leaders of our state truly prioritize education?”
A look at that “fate” is instructive:
According to a percentage comparison between states and the nation for public school students at or above Proficient in fourth-grade NAEP mathematics for the year 2013:
| Percentage at or above Proficient compared to the nation (public) | AZ | NP |
| Mathematics 4th Grade | 40% | 41% |
| Mathematics 8th Grade | 31%* | 34% |
| Reading 4th Grade | 28%* | 34% |
| Reading 8th Grade | 28%* | 34% |
Overall, the percentage of Arizona schools at or above Proficient was not significantly from the rest of the nation. As a matter of fact, Arizona was 1of the only 14 states in which students made gains. This despite the stingy Legislature:
| Arizona Mathematics 4th grade scores | AZ | NP |
| 2011 | 235* | 240* |
| 2013 | 240 | 241 |
| Change | 5 pts | 1 pt |
Improving from an average ranking is not monumental, but it isn’t failing either. Douglas claims that “recent figures have shown that as many as 90 percent of our juniors in high school are not career and college ready.” If those figures are the product of students’ performance on the AZMerit test, her claims are incedible.
Her claim that Arizona is the “worst funded and poorest performing education systems in the nation,” is outright incredible. If she believes her own claims, she should be recalled, if she is making the claims to avoid being recalled, she may not be as dumb as she appears.
To her credit, she takes a veiled pot-shot at Gover Ducey and an endorsement of Treasurer Jeff DeWit in her call for a special session of the Legislature:
The proposal calls for $400 million from the general fund to be appropriated by the Legislature and the Governor in a special session. It does not count any current funding against that number, nor does it envision any changes to First Things First funding. If the Governor’s state land trust plan is approved by the Legislature and the people in some form, any land trust education revenues in excess of 2.5 percent would count toward the figure, so long as the State Treasurer verifies the expenditure would not deplete the corpus of the land trust.
“Making our children wait two years, then funding them for a few years, then not funding them after that makes no sense at all,” added Douglas. “Do all Arizona children deserve a great education, or only those who are in school during key development periods in times of lawsuits or high revenue growth? I believe we need a system that is not subject to the whims of such ups and downs, but is based on what is best for all of our children.”
Some of us believe that whatever funding proposals our “leaders” make, they should be based on real performance data, and must include restrictions on the use of funds.
Douglas says “we can’t afford NOT to fund our schools. Our kids can’t afford to wait, our state can’t afford to wait, and we all have to act now.” If acting now includes a complete review of how the current funding is being spent, she might be right.
Funding Proposal
| FY 16 | FY 17 | FY 18 | FY 19 | FY 20 | FY 21 | FY 22 and beyond |
| $400m General Fund | $400m General Fund | $400m General Fund and/or State Land Trust Funds over 2.5% | $400m General Fund and/or State Land Trust Funds over 2.5% | $400m General Fund and/or State Land Trust Funds over 2.5% | $400m General Fund and/or State Land Trust Funds over 2.5% | $400m General Fund and/or State Land Trust Funds over 2.5% |