HCR 2037 sends money to schools not First Things First lobbyists
Over the years educators have come to know how difficult it is to get a hold of First Things First money as they try to fund programs that put kids first. Now, it appears as if the First Things First lobbyists have squashed any effort to divert their slush funds directly to the schools.
According to the legislative record, HCR 2037 refers a ballot measure to the voters requiring monies to be transferred from the Early Childhood Development and Health Fund (Fund) to school districts and charter schools to provide early childhood literacy programs.
House Education Committee Chair Paul Boyer is known for his quiet and thoughtful demeanor. Boyer is also known for having difficultly standing up to the corporate powers-that-be, who benefit from the education industrialized complex. That weakness appears to be behind his recent decision to table HCR 2037 at the behest of lobbyist and Board Chairman of Great Hearts charter schools, and Boyer’s employer, Jay Heiler.
In 2006 the voters passed Proposition 203, also known as First Things First for Arizona’s Children, which increased various tobacco taxes and allocated the increased revenue to programs and services for children before Kindergarten. All monies collected through the increased tobacco tax are deposited into the Fund, of which 90% are deposited into the program account and 10% into the administrative costs account (A.R.S. § 8-1181). Disbursements from the Fund are governed by the Early Childhood Development and Health Board (Board). Heiler sits on that board.
Heiler is best known for his unfortunate statement in 2012, that in “Tennessee it seems like there was more of a focus of bringing diversity into each school, whereas here we try to serve a diversity of communities,” referring to a rejection of Great Hearts by a Nashville, Tennessee, because the company only wanted to build the schools in affluent areas.
Not only does Great Hearts receive money from First Things First, HCR 2037, “prohibits monies deposited in the Fund from the tobacco tax from being used to pay the costs of lobbying or advertising through television, radio or billboards.” It also “requires sufficient monies in the Fund to be transferred to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) to be distributed to school districts and charter schools to provide early childhood literacy programs for children under 7 years.”
HCR 2037 would fund an issue near-and-dear to Boyer’s heart; the Internet Crimes Against Children Enforcement Fund. It would “requires the first $5 million of any unexpended and unencumbered monies remaining in the Fund at the end of a Fiscal Year (FY) to be transferred to the Internet Crimes Against Children Enforcement Fund.”
HCR 2037 would send the question to the voters, and if passed would:
1. Send approximately $100 million of new annual funding, directly into the schools, without raising taxes.
2. Eliminates nearly $10 million in annual administrative, advertising, and lobbying expenses by First Things First.
3. Restores local control of the tax dollars by placing investment decisions in the hands of the locally elected school boards.
4. Insures that future tax dollars are invested in teacher salaries and reading programs, not billboards and contributions to advocacy groups.
5. Eliminates tax payer funded lobbyists, radio, and television advertising and uses those dollars for early childhood education programs.
6. Increases the amount of money spent on early childhood reading programs across Arizona by millions of dollars.
7. Puts Classrooms first, local school districts in the driver’s seat, and helps our teachers and kids.
8. Invests millions of dollars in protecting children from internet predators.
9. Restores local control and allows decisions to be made at the local level by elected school boards.