The Arizona Senate Finance Committee’s hearing on a bill intended to increase equity for all Arizona public school children by phasing out desegregation funding. The bill seeks to eliminate the funding disparities created by old and existing desegregation and OCR cases.
The committee voted 3-2 in favor of the legislation.
The injustice that the students of TUSD have experienced at the hands of politicians for years, was on full display during the hearing, as senators allowed the testimony of TUSD superintendent H.T. Sanchez to go unchallenged.
The Arizona Tax Research Association, the organization promoting the bill, first presented the bill to Lesko to sponsor based on their assumption that the District was not currently under a federal court desegregation order. Upon learning that their assumptions were mistaken, the group pushed on and appeared to fail to adequately brief the senators Yee and Lesko prior to the hearing.
As a result, Sanchez inaccurately told the committee that the current desegregation order is specific in its requirements and a loss of funds would not allow the District to comply with the Order.
Sanchez claimed that the desegregation money is allocated specifically by the Order and District accounts for every dollar spent. However just this month, Sanchez and his supporters on the Board fought a request by members of the community on both sides of the political aisle to hire an internal auditor independent of the administration.
At the time of the rejection, Board member Mark Stegeman questioned why Sanchez would deny transparency in the District’s dealings.
Despite Sanchez’s claims the District is following strict requirements of the Order and the federal court appointed Special Master, the District has ignored a recent finding by the court that magnet program, which has been the center of the District’s desegregation plan, has not only failed to desegregate the schools it has failed to provide a quality education to all children.
Instead the magnet program has relied on expensive gimmicks that have not attracted student to the magnet programs, according to Judge Bury in a finding he issued last month.
Members of the Tucson Unified School District were taken by surprise on Tuesday when they received a press release in the late afternoon from the District’s public relations department that Sanchez would provide testimony before the committee on Wednesday.
Only Tucson unified School District Governing Board member Michael Hicks, through the ALIS system, entered testimony that accurately reflected the situation facing Tucson residents. At the behest of parties in the desegregation case, Hicks urged the committee to understand that it was the funding that was perpetuating the segregated schools rather than alleviating it.
He wrote:
“I have worked with plaintiff representatives in the TUSD desegregation case for over four years now. I have watched their disappointment time and time again as the District uses the desegregation dollars as a slush fund rather than place highly trained teachers in small classrooms; an equation that we know improves academic performance for all children no matter their economic status.
“Money is not the answer. Money cannot be the answer when it is so plentiful that it can be used to send teachers, administrators and others all over the world, but we must ask parents and teachers to supply our classrooms.
“I urge the Finance Committee to consider passing Senate Bill 1371 based on what the plaintiff representatives’ belief that it is the money that has caused TUSD to not actively secure Unitary Status.
Only Senator Steve Yarbrough seemed to understand that the funding could be abused by districts.
On Tuesday, TUSD demonstrated how the funding is abused. The administration once again outraged desegregation plaintiff representatives when they voted to allocate $480K to refurbish a partially closed school facility to accommodate school board meetings. The site, which is situated further away from traditionally underserved neighborhoods, is preferred by Sanchez because, according to sources, it is closer to his upper middle class neighborhood and more convenient.
Sanchez claimed that the move was in response to an OCR complaint filed by stakeholders during the Mexican American Studies debates two years ago. At the time, the District refused to hold school board meetings in the larger high school auditoriums in its effort to block public participation.
Board member Michael Hicks argued Tuesday night that using the existing auditoriums near traditionally underserved neighborhoods would be a more economical and reasonable resolution to the OCR complaint. The Board voted 3-2 to move forward with the plan.
It is unlikely the desegregation plaintiffs will agree to the expense.
Retired educator Rich Kronberg summed up the situation:
“The issue is not whether additional money could be helpful but rather whether it has been helpful in improving student achievement or in integrating TUSD schools. Sadly, the answer to the first question about improved academic performance is unclear, and TUSD is much more segregated now than it was when the desegregation order was handed down decades ago. After well over a billion additional dollars has been pumped into TUSD by Tucson taxpayers it would be fatuous to assert that the money has either helped improve academic performance or integrated TUSD schools.
“The history of how the desegregation money has been spent is disgraceful. Let us remember that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the prior district court unitary status plan because of TUSD’s lack of good faith in implementing it. TUSD was not able to account for how it spent desegregation dollars and would not even have anyone audit the use of desegregation funding. We do know that the funds were used in ways clearly unconnected with improving academic performance or desegregating TUSD schools. It would be reasonable to say that TUSD used desegregation money was used as a slush fund by whatever administration was in charge.
“The money provides a perverse incentive for TUSD to continue to do a poor job for its students. If student performance improved to a significant degree there would be no valid reason to continue this additional funding. The best evidence that TUSD misuses the money comes from Dr. Sanchez’s own testimony. The biggest chunk of last year’s desegregation money was spent on TUSD’s magnet schools, which both Special Master Hawley and Judge Bury found do not either improve student learning or desegregate TUSD schools.
“Unless the state legislature can devise a mechanism that requires the desegregation money it has authorized TUSD to take from TUSD’s taxpayers in ways that demonstrably improve student learning and desegregate TUSD schools there is no reason to continue the funding, especially at current levels. If the legislature allows TUSD to continue to get this money then it needs to provide some direction in how to spend this money in ways that benefit students and not TUSD’s administration.
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