(C) Arizona Mirror
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Hobbs releases her plan to renew Prop 123, increase school funding and teacher pay [1]
['Caitlin Sievers', 'More From Author', '- January']
Date: 2024-01
Republicans and Democrats both want to renew Proposition 123 to increase teacher pay, but Gov. Katie Hobbs’ newly released proposal goes farther than the one Republicans debuted in November.
Hobbs on Tuesday released her plan that would provide pay raises for teachers and also school support staff, a group left out of Republican plans.
“We have a once in a decade opportunity to invest in a public education system that gives every child the opportunity to succeed,” Hobbs said in a statement. “We can increase compensation for educators and make schools safer for our kids, all without raising taxes on Arizonans.”
Arizona voters approved Prop. 123 in 2016, increasing from 2.5% to 6.9% the distribution from the State Land Trust that goes to K-12 education. As of November, the trust had an approximate value of $7.88 billion and was set to distribute $424 million to K-12 education in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the State Treasurer’s Office.
If the changes that Prop. 123 implemented aren’t renewed, the trust’s contribution to K-12 education would drop back down to its previous 2.5% at the end of 2025.
Hobbs proposed increasing the distribution to education to 8.9%, with a guarantee that 2.5% of that would go to general school funding; 4.4% would go to increasing pay for teachers; 1.5% would go to pay increases for school support staff; and the remaining 0.5% would fund school capital projects for safety and security. The proposal would extend the increased distributions to education funding for another decade.
In November, Republican leaders in the Legislature announced their own plans to renew Prop. 123, keeping the distribution at the same 6.9% for the next 8 to 10 years, but with a guarantee that the funding would go to pay raises for teachers only.
Hobbs and Republican leaders have all said their plans to renew Prop. 123 are aimed at helping to address the dire teacher shortage in Arizona, which ranks 32nd in the nation for teacher pay, according to the National Education Association, with an average salary of $56,775, nearly $10,000 less than the national average.
“I appreciate that the Governor is embracing our idea to use a proposition to provide teacher pay raises,” Senate President Warren Petersen told the Arizona Mirror in a statement. “When Republicans passed 20% teacher pay raises in 2018, the Democrats voted no. And while we appreciate her input on the matter as a referral to the ballot, the issue is solely at the discretion of the Legislature, subject to voter approval.”
Legislative Republicans do not need approval from Hobbs to refer their Prop. 123 plan to the state’s voters, who would ultimately decide whether to continue the increased distribution for education. And Hobbs has no way to circumvent lawmakers to place her proposal on the ballot.
In 2018, legislative Democrats did not support the Republican proposals for teacher pay raises because their pay increase proposal did not address many other demands from teachers, including pay raises for support staff and increased classroom funding.
“My plan is a critical step toward ensuring every Arizona child can get a quality and safe public education while addressing our teacher shortage,” Hobbs said in the statement. “I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats in the legislature to send Prop 123 back to the ballot and making these critical investments in public education.”
State Treasurer Kimberly Yee harshly criticized Hobbs’ proposal, and she didn’t seem keen on the Republican proposal either, saying in a Tuesday statement that a distribution of 4-5% would be more financially prudent.
“The Governor’s proposal is dangerous and unsustainable,” Yee said. “It would break the bank. Governor Hobbs wants to raid the land trust to cover for her mismanagement of the state budget and overzealous spending plans in an ever-increasing inflationary environment.”
Yee added that, over the next 10 years, forecasters predict a return of less than 6% from the trust, and that expecting a more than 8.9% return from the fund over the next 10 years was not consistent with how the fund has performed in the past.
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[1] Url:
https://www.azmirror.com/blog/hobbs-releases-her-plan-to-renew-prop-123-increase-school-funding-and-teacher-pay/
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