Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/610158
WINTER 2015/16 | ADVOCATE 9 at the capitol "This is the settlement of one of the questions in a state with a lot of questions that we still face about public education," Morrill said. "The les- son here is that when you bring the right people together, committed to a resolution, you will not find perfection, but you will find the answers that you need. Let's let that be the lesson as we go for- ward to tackle the other questions." David Lewis, executive director of Arizona Asso- ciation of Business Officials, said "As we're talking about moving education forward, we know the importance of economic development and for us to have a great education system here in Arizona so businesses will move here, so businesses will be happy to have their employees' families moving here and we can capitalize on that together." At the signing, House Speaker David Gowan said legislators began working toward this in No- vember of last year. Arizona Senate President Andy Biggs said "This is what happens when we all set aside some of our own agendas to try to get to the best possible solution." Later that afternoon, Dr. Debbi Burdick, super- intendent of Cave Creek Unified School District, sent an email to students' parents and community members. Cave Creek Unified was lead plaintiff in the inflation funding lawsuit. "Although the Legislature and Governor have approved this, there is no money attached to it unless the voters in AZ would approve it in an election next May," Burdick said. "In addition, it is only a beginning. We are hopeful that the state government will continue to increase spending to where it should be." Ducey said a well-funded, organized campaign to let Arizonans' know how important a yes vote is to Arizona's future, children and teachers and the state's future will be led by Sharon Harper, presi- dent and CEO of Plaza Companies, Ducey said. "Now it's up to the voters to do their part and approve the legislators actions by voting yes for our schools, yes for our teachers, yes for our chil- dren on the May 17, 2016 special election ballot," said Harper. Arizona Education Association Improving our public schools and doing what's best for our students has always been our goal and this is a first step in a larger education funding conversation at the state level. This settlement only resolves the failure to fund inflation. We still need to restore the massive cuts to schools made during the recession." "Settling the lawsuit allows our state to focus on restoring funding to other portions of the education budget, including full-day kindergarten, JTED programs, and district additional assistance for textbooks, curriculum, technology, and building repairs. Arizona School Boards Association Today we were able to overcome a major hurdle in finding a resolution to the five years of litigation and resolve Cave Creek v. DeWit, the K-12 inflation funding lawsuit filed in 2010. Compromise can be tough. At this critical time in our history, continuing to seek legal remedies with the inherent risks no longer serves the immediate needs of our students. We can't begin to solve the bigger educational issues in Arizona without getting past the inflation lawsuit." "In seeing the big picture, we now must pivot and focus not only on the importance of the bond and override elections next week, but also by recognizing this is just the beginning of trying to correct the educational challenges of our schools caused by the lack of state financial support." "The ASBA staff and board have been steady advocates to ensure adequate funding was restored to support our one million students and thousands of teachers in all public school districts across Arizona. Now it is time for us to re-focus all of our efforts on the challenges we face in creating the type of education our students deserve. Arizona Association of School Business Officials Arizona's schools are facing and continue to face, a funding crisis that is dramatically impacting our ability to properly maintain an acceptable school environment and provide some relief for the teacher shortage that is negatively impacting classroom instruction. Given this, AABO and its plaintiff partners are moving forward with the inflation funding lawsuit settlement, driven by the shared belief that our students and teachers across the state need this money now. It is important to keep in mind we don't believe this is in any way a long-term solution to the problems of education funding in Arizona. It is a settlement of a lawsuit that began in 2008 to restore the base level and inflation funding. Statements from the Plaintiffs g