Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/426191
12 Winter 2014/15 x AEA Advocate teachers there are expected to leave at the end of the month, Darland said. Good teachers are leaving for other careers where they can make more money and going to other states where salaries are more competitive, Davidson said. "In the past few years, I've watched colleagues – good teachers that I wanted my daughter to have as her teachers – leave Arizona or leave our profession entirely," said Beth Maloney, Arizona's 2014 Teacher of the Year and Dysart Education Association member. "They've left the state after realizing that opportunities from state to state are vastly unequal," Maloney said. "They left the profession because of the excessive burdens that funding cuts have placed upon teachers and have experienced burnout from all the additional responsibilities. Many have left the profession, because they could not raise a family after year of cuts in our pay." Maloney teaches a fifth-grade class of 30 students at Sunset Hills Elementary School in Dysart Unified School District. "Our class sizes are so large that effective teaching is compromised," Maloney said. "When I speak to my colleagues across the country they are often horrified when I tell them how many students we have in our classrooms in Arizona." Fewer resources also mean that teachers have taken on many additional responsibilities, Maloney said. "Classroom teachers are now not only instructional and content experts but we are also fulfilling the roles of counselors, secretaries, specialists in multiple world languages, parent and child advocates, college and career advisors, assessment coordinators, media and technology specialists, nurses, tutors, events coordinators, and curriculum writers and specialists," Maloney said. After plaintiffs in the Cave Creek Unified School District v. Ducey inflation funding lawsuit won at the Supreme Court of Arizona last September, the case was sent back to the Superior Court of Maricopa County to determine the reset level and backpay issues, said Don Peters, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. "The plaintiffs argued that the Legislature was prepared to grant an increase, but starting with the base of what the base level had been when they quit making increases years ago," Peters said. "We said, wait a minute, no. You should give the increase from what the base level would be today if you had made the increases every year the way you were required to by law." Plaintiffs wanted that reset base level corrected going forward which will affect what school districts get in the future, Peters said. "There were years when school districts didn't get that money. We said the voters wanted them to have that money, they need that money, the courts should order that it (the backpay) be disbursed," Peters said. In February 2014, the plaintiffs offered a settlement proposal to the state, and in July 2014 the plaintiffs served an offer of judgment, which would have brought the litigation to a conclusion if the state had agreed, Peters said. "If they (the State) would correct the base level going forward – the reset issue – the plaintiffs were prepared to give up the claim to money from past years – the backpay issue," Peters said. "We have never had a response to the settlement overtures that we've made, but I do think it's important for you to know that the schools have been trying to get this resolved." On October 27, the Superior Court of Maricopa County held a hearing on the backpay issue in the inflation funding lawsuit. (A judgment was expected in November, after this issue went to print.) Numerous offers to resolve the backpay issue, including a settlement proposal of basically 25 cents on the dollar "have never been acknowledged by state leaders and as we approach the hearing that window of opportunity to resolve this is closing very rapidly," Ogle said. "I expect the Legislature and the governor to do the will of the people," Darland said. "Delay tactics and ignoring the generous and reasonable offers of settlement are simply unacceptable." Education funding cuts impact all Arizonans, Maloney said. "Our schools need to produce graduates with the skills required to fulfill jobs in the Arizona business community," Maloney said. "Arizona will thrive as an innovative state, when we make the education of our children our top priority." 2 AROUND AEA Court-Ordered Funding, cont. from page 11 Beth Maloney speaks about the impact of budget cuts on teachers and her students.