Robb: Doug Ducey's education plan is enough to fend off a tax increase - for now

Gov. Doug Ducey may have regained ball control regarding K-12 education funding.

He was close to losing it, if he hadn’t already. A variety of groups were pawing the ground for a tax increase that Ducey is pledged to oppose.

Substantively, Ducey’s plan for education funding is meaningful.

Recession drained all 3 funding pots

There are three big pots of money at the state level for K-12 education:

* Basic state aid for ordinary operating expenses;

* District and charter additional assistance, originally intended for short-life capital expenses such as textbooks and furniture, but now able to be used for anything; and

* School Facilities Board funding for large capital projects, such as new schools and major repairs to existing schools.

STUDY:Arizona students get less money now than in 2008

To cope with the recession, all three pots were drained. Inflation funding for basic state aid was suspended. District additional assistance was slashed and new SFB projects shelved.

Proposition 123 restored inflation funding for basic state aid.

This column has long advocated that whatever spare dollars are available be used to restore district additional assistance. Ducey has proposed that it be completely restored over five years, with a $100 million initial payment next year.

The state is back in the business of building new schools and Ducey proposes additional funding for grants to make major repairs.

This doesn't fix everything, but it helps

This won’t get Arizona’s K-12 school system back to where it was in terms of real, per pupil funding prior to the recession. But it does represent substantive strides in that direction.

Politically, Ducey’s plan will make it more difficult to form an education-business coalition to run an initiative for a tax increase he would oppose.

Ducey was surrounded by school district representatives when he announced the plan. One education organization, the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, dropped out of a lawsuit against the state over capital funding.

Defeating Ducey’s re-election bid or passing a tax increase over his opposition has always been a dubious proposition. The only two tax increases for education that voters approved were both proposed by a Republican governor and referred by a Republican Legislature. The two times the education community went it alone, the measures were overwhelmingly defeated. Despite initially favorable polling and despite some support from the business community.

Ducey’s plan does enough that some education organizations and large segments of the business community are likely to conclude that it is better, at present, to work with him rather than take him on at the ballot box.

Schools still need a tax increase

Now, I continue to believe that a consumption tax increase with the proceeds going principally, if not exclusively, to K-12 education is warranted. Ducey’s plan restores funding too slowly and falls too short of fully getting back to pre-recession levels. And executing it will require walking a budget tightrope for several years if state revenue growth doesn’t perk up, which it shows no sign of doing.

Still, Ducey’s record on education funding is far better than he is given credit for.

He inherited the inflation funding lawsuit, effectuated a settlement that had eluded the parties and the courts, and got voters to approve it.

Ducey made a political mistake in proposing a 1 percent salary bonus for teachers, allowing it to be mischaracterized as all he thought teachers should get, rather than as the sweetener he intended.

The state should leave teacher salaries to the districts and charter school organizations. The AASBO reports that the average teacher in a district school received a 5 percent raise as a result of Prop. 123.

Ducey was slow to focus on restoring district additional assistance, spending too much money on tangential programs. But he’s focused on it now.

Instead of attacking Ducey, do this

If the education community and its friends in the business community were wise, they would concentrate on two things this legislative session:

* Ducey’s plan for district additional assistance; and

* Getting the Legislature to approve an extension of Prop. 301’s education sales tax, due to expire in 2021, by a required two-thirds vote.

Leave taking Ducey on regarding taxes for another day.

Reach Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com. 

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