Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/426191
AEA Advocate x Winter 2014/15 7 AT THE CAPITOL What's coming up in the next legislative session? Budget Arizona is facing a $1.5 billion budget deficit as a result of declining revenue due to corporate tax cuts implemented by Arizona's leaders. State legislators and newly elected Governor Doug Ducey will need to figure out how to balance the budget while keeping their campaign promises to not cut taxes or cut education spending. Schools should see an increase in funding due to AEA's victory in the inflation funding lawsuit (read more on page 11), depending on whether Ducey chooses to settle or further delay paying what the state owes our students. For the past ten years corporate tax breaks have drained over $650 million from the general fund. In 2011, legislation was passed to reduce corporate income tax in a four-year phase down starting in fiscal year 2015. The cuts were passed with the promise that they would attract more companies, create jobs, and improve Arizona's economy. Three years later our state's economy and job growth remain stagnant while the rest of the country sees gains. These upcoming tax cuts are going to reduce state revenue by $226 million by fiscal year 2018. At the same time, Arizona's leaders will need to follow the court orders to increase education funding by $336 million this year. In addition, the state's corporate tax credit for donations to private-school tuition programs is draining money from the general fund at an alarming rate. State law allows corporations to make a dollar-for-dollar income tax credit donation to School Tuition Organizations (STO) up to a specific amount that increases by 20 percent each year. The STOs provide scholarships to students already attending private schools and are allowed to keep 10 percent of the donation for expenses. This tax credit scheme has no accountability and diverts tax payer money away from our public schools into private religious schools. Accountability Measures The State Board of Education met in December and was expected to discuss a safe harbor year for accountability measures as the state implements new statewide standardized test. Read more about this new test on page 19. This meeting took place after this publication went to print. In order to hold students and teacher harmless, changes have to be made in state law, requiring action by the state legislature. AEA opposes high-stakes testing and believes students and teachers will need time to adjust to the new assessment. At a time when the state is raising expectations and underfunding our schools, it's unfair to our students and teachers to measure their performance. Schools should be given the resources and support they need and be allowed to set a baseline on the data from the new assessment. AEA will advocate for a moratorium of at least two years for accountability measures tied to the new assessment. Arizona Academic Standards We expect to see legislation impacting the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards and the new assessment, either in changing them or defunding its implementation. Governor Doug Ducey and Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas both ran on a platform to repeal the standards. The new chairs for the Senate and House Education committees, Kelli Ward and Paul Boyer, are also opponents to these academic benchmarks. Arizona's standards have been in place for four years and these kinds of political shenanigans hurt our students by distracting teachers from focusing on the classroom and continue to make Arizona the laughingstock of the nation. Our state would be better served if our leaders addressed the real issues facing Arizona such as our declining revenue. Anti-Union bills The election hasn't changed much of the state legislature so we expect to see the same bills targeting labor unions that we saw last legislative session. Those bills attempted to stifle the voices of educators and public safety by denying them the ability to use payroll deduction to pay their professional association dues. We defeated these bills with a coalition of democrats and moderate republicans and will need to support these legislators to stand strong against these bills in this upcoming legislative session. Continued on next page