Arizona Education Association

Advocate Fall 2012

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AT THE CAPITOL other sources. Over a four-year period, state legislators cut more than $1 billion from K-12 funding, resulting in larger class sizes, loss of teachers, and elimination of state funding for all-day kindergarten. Although there was a budget surplus this year, legislators rejected the governor's request to invest $295 million in K-12 education, choosing instead to fund $89 million. The proposal will provide funding and resources to support classroom teachers to increase student performance and meet new rigorous education reforms over the next two years, including requirements that: • Third graders read at grade level or be held back a year. • Schools and districts improve achievement among their lowest performers or risk being assigned a D or F school grade, with the penalties that apply. • Teachers and principals have one-third to one-half of their annual performance evaluations directly linked to student performance. Prop 204 will help education across the spectrum: K-12, vocational education, community colleges, universities, and adult GED programs. The initiative will help make education more affordable for the middle class by including scholarships to attend university or community college by establishing scholarship funds for in-state community college and university students, whose tuition rose 63 percent over a four-year period because of legislative budget cuts. It will fund GED programs and invest in career and technical education programs in high schools and community colleges that graduate students ready to enter the work force. The initiative will also protect the health of children living in poverty so they can succeed in school. Twenty percent of the revenues will be spent on other statewide needs such as restoring health-care funding for children living in low-income families; making grants to state agencies and non-profits that provide child care and help reduce hunger, homelessness, and family violence, and building statewide road, rail, and public transit projects. The Prop 204 campaign is YESON QUALITY EDUCATION & JOBS spearheaded by a volunteer-led coalition made up of parents, students, educators, and business leaders. More than 60 pro-Prop 204 ballot arguments were submitted, including arguments from the state's two top CEO organizations, the AEA, the Arizona PTA, the Arizona Students' Association, educator groups, numerous social service agencies, the mayors of Phoenix and Tucson, pediatricians, literacy advocates, Chicanos por la Causa, and the Navajo Nation. By investing in education, Arizona will be investing in its future. The economy in Arizona will be strengthened by improving the quality of education, making the state more competitive in attracting companies that need a high-quality work force. For more information about Prop 204 and how you can get involved, visit www. qualityeducationandjobs.com. ✒ LEFT: AEA President Andrew Morrill is one of many volunteers carrying boxes of petitions signatures to qualify Prop 204 for the November ballot. RIGHT: All 290,849 petitions signatures for the Quality Education and Jobs citizen's initiative – the most ever submitted in Arizona history! AEA Advocate ❘ Fall 2012 9

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