SB1371 opposed by TUSD
Last week, the Superintendent of the Tucson Unified School District, H.T. Sanchez testified before the Arizona Senate Finance Committee as they considered Senate Bill 1371. Sanchez claimed in his testimony that the Unitary Status Plan, ordered by federal Judge David Bury, allowed for little discretion in the use of the District’s desegregation monies.
Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Board member Michael Hicks also offered testimony electronically to the Committee. 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.”
Senators had little information available to them, except that glossy handout provided by the District and an overview created by the Arizona Tax Research Association. Despite the dearth of detailed information, the senators rightly voted to pass the bill out of committee.
Afterwards, Committee member Senator Steve Farley, (D-Tucson) criticized Hicks. In response, liberal blogger David Abie Morales wrote that he had “analyzed the attack” on Hicks “after he had the audacity to tell the truth by stating that some of the Plaintiffs believe that it is all this money that keeps TUSD from seeking Unitary Status, which is the term that is applied when a district is no longer segregated.”
“The current desegregation order over TUSD is something that we were involved with intimately, and it is something that, while flawed, we still fully support,” writes Morales. “However, let us not confuse the Deseg Order with Deseg Dollars.” Morales accused Democrats of using “fear just as Republicans do to justify something using bad logic.”
As Morales notes, “What Farley, Adelita Grijalva and Kristel Foster and all of their apologists are really saying that if we lose Deseg Dollars then TUSD collapses, but to keep those Deseg Dollars TUSD must keep its segregation alive. If you get rid of segregation, then you get rid of Deseg Dollars. What Hicks said was absolutely right. TUSD does NOT want to achieve Unitary Status because it will then lose $64 million.”
That fear is irrational. For example, Phoenix Union has been able to hang onto their desegregation monies despite having achieved unitary status, but TUSD leaders are convinced Morales is right. As a result, everything appears to be done to ensure that Unitary Status is never achieved.
As a result, money is spent in a haphazard and careless manner rather than on strengthening the core of the desegregation plan; magnet schools. The magnet plan, devised 30 years ago by mostly white men to draw white students into minority schools through programs that would attract them “to the other side of town.” They did not want children from the “other side of town” bussed into their neighborhood schools, and magnets were an easy solution.
The magnets were placed in underserved pockets of the District and would offer programs ranging from performing arts to the law. The quality of the education was to be such that any “discerning parent” would choose them for their child.
Unfortunately, like nearly everything in the District, lip service was paid to quality and the schools attracted nothing but criticism from the plaintiffs and the public and poor grades from the Arizona Department of Education.
Because the District has used the desegregation dollars as a slush fund, in 2011, a group of public school advocates called on Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal to investigate the misuse of the monies. At the time, Huppenthal was in the middle of the fight with TUSD over its Ethnic Studies classes and was unwilling to address the concerns.
Just last month, TUSD board member Mark Stegeman joined by Board member Michael Hicks called for the hiring of an independent auditor. The request was made in part, due to concerns by at least two desegregation party representatives that desegregation money was being used in an improper manner.
While the auditor proposal was supported across partisan lines, the majority of the Board, under the leadership of Board president Adelita Grijalva rejected it.
Both Stegeman and Hick expressed concerns that the auditor request was rejected because the District has something to hide.
Following that, the Special Master, who oversees the USP for the court, demanded that the district discover how money is being spent and if it is being spent effectively. Last week, the Board voted to spend $90,000 for an outside analysis by the District Management Council.
Hawley is hoping the analysis will provide information which will “influence district policy and the allocation of human and financial resources.”
Desegregation money is intended to supplement, not supplant education efforts. According to plaintiff representatives, the Tucson Unified School District is supposed use desegregation money for programs and activities that will enhance a student’s chances of success in integrated classrooms. The money is not to be used for budget items such as Maintenance and Operations and those other item sand services that schools are otherwise expected to provide.
Over the course of the next week, we will examine the desegregation spending. Desegregation money spending highlights 2013-2014:
Cholla High School: $41,000 Membership dues
Dodge Middle School: $9,711.14 Travel (Out-of-State)
Carillo Elementary: $8,000 Teaching Supplies
Drachman Elementary: $6,000 Travel (Out-of-State)
Robison Elementary: $8,500 Travel (Out-of-State)
Much of the travel is made in the name of professional development, which is provided for in the USP. However, a cursory look at the line items shows that the considerable discretion as to how that training is delivered to District staff.
As residents of the 8th poorest metropolitan area in the country, many of Tucson’s children have little or no opportunity to visit area museums or even travel to see the State’s Capitol, much less jet off to California’s Capitol to stay at the Hyatt for a few days as TUSD’s teachers and administrator do in the name of equity.
Follow us this week as we follow the travels of TUSD.
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TUSD works to move desegregation money away from classrooms
TUSD claims, SB1371, lead to look at desegregation spending
Senate committee hears tall TUSD tales in desegregation hearing
Sanchez to testify on bill that would phase out desegregation funding
Ducey education budget, desegregation dollars raise inequity issues
TUSD works to move desegregation money away from classrooms
District negotiates “fiscally responsible” desegregation order