A group called “Expect More Arizona” conducted a poll and found that the public is willing to pay higher taxes for better schools. Arizona is currently overrun with charter schools, most of dubious quality. Choice has left most children behind.
A survey conducted in mid-December on behalf of Expect More Arizona affirms that education is still the most pressing issue on the minds of Arizona voters, above immigration and the economy.
When asked to name specific concerns related to education, lack of funding and teacher pay/teacher shortage rose to the top. In fact, when asked what issue, if any, voters would be willing to pay more in taxes to support, higher teacher pay was the top issue across all political parties.
The poll also showed strong support for the renewal of Prop 301, a voter initiative passed in 2000 that provides a six-tenths of one cent sales tax for public education, resulting in more than $650 million in revenue each year. Additionally, voters surveyed support possibly increasing the associated sales tax rate in order to fund teacher pay or K-3 literacy programs.
Other notable results from the survey of likely Arizona voters show:
Finding a long-term solution for education funding is rated as a top education priority by 84 percent of likely Arizona voters, regardless of their age, party affiliation, ethnicity, economic status, or geographic location.
Ninety-five (95) percent of voters believe it is important to provide schools the funding they need to attract and retain great teachers with 76 percent agreeing Arizona is facing a teacher shortage crisis.
An overwhelming majority agree that Arizona must ensure all students receive the support needed to read proficiently by the end of 3rd grade (95%).
Voters agree all students deserve a great education (96%) and that education impacts the strength of our communities (95%).
Eighty percent agree that increasing the number of people who graduate from the state’s public community colleges and universities will help improve the state’s economy and 75 percent of voters also agree that community colleges and universities should receive additional funding.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The Arizona Tax Research Association would like to correct an important error in the Arizona Capitol Times (July 11). The National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in the nation, ranks Arizona 29th for school year 2012-13 in average salaries for K-12 “public school teachers.” The Capitol Times article incorrectly reported Arizona at 42nd.
Moreover, when controlling for per-capita personal income (PCI), Arizona’s ranking jumps to 14th in the nation. Calculating these average salaries as a percentage of PCI is a common method that accounts for differences in the underlying wealth between states. This analysis also helps account for the differences in cost of living between states. It certainly would be inappropriate to directly compare a New York teacher’s salary against one in Arizona.
A mistake often made in Arizona is linking our historic low Maintenance and Operations (M&O) per-pupil ranking with low teacher pay. Actually, our low expenditures per-pupil ranking is largely a function of dramatic student growth in Arizona over the last 25 years. In fact, between 1992 and 2010, Arizona’s total M&O spending for K-12 education increased 189 percent, the third highest percentage increase nationwide. Certainly, arguments can be made that historically teachers have been paid less than other professions. However, in comparative terms, Arizona teacher salaries have fared well with other states.”
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2014/07/21/arizona-teacher-pay-ranks-higher-than-reported/
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Last week’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data on student achievement brought good news for Arizona schools (scroll down for Arizona’s scores). Despite the rancor surrounding K-12 in our state, Arizona schools have been making steady progress through very difficult circumstances. While all of our schools faced funding adversity, many now show achievement scores comparable to the highest performing states.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2015/11/04/arizona-naep-scores/75044898/
So, who is right???
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Rudy
We can always count on you to be the Designated Contrarian.
Did you notice that Michigan has been sliding continuously on the NAEP since 2003?
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Littlefingers Donald Trump does not care what polls report about what the majority of Americans think. He has already revealed with he thinks when he Tweets that the polls are wrong, that everyone is wrong ,when what the polls report doesn’t match what he wants to hear. And most of his cabinet picks share his thinking.
What the 0.1 percent thinks is what counts, not what the 99.9 percent think.
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Of course they are. This is because we Americans, have forgotten how to think. They’ve pulled this in multiple states, with parents using ballot initiatives to increase taxes on themselves in order to fund schools hit by budget cuts. How the Davos class must laugh.
What I’d pay for is a ballot initiative to audit schools and charters following the money. Make sure the auditors have no connection to corporate reform. And focus on dollars to public schools vs charters. Add in those real estate loans too.
From you, I found an article which said some district (forgot which) was given $3300 per pupil but then mentioned the charters were getting $7200 per pupil. Do that in enough districts (recommend NE, SE, NW, and SW and TX, which should be included as a stand alone because they are so heavily into ‘free markets’) and you’ll have parents all over the country ‘demanding their money back’.
People get angry when they see they’ve been robbed.
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“We Americans have forgotten how to think”
I disagree. Not all of us. In fact, most of us who vote know how to think.
Most voting Americans still know how to think, and that’s why the super wealthy like Betsy DeVos stopped trying to achieve her agenda through the democratic process with public support, and started to buy elected representatives through her election contributions. The Democratic process didn’t work for her so she’s using her money to by-pass thinking, voting Americans, and she is subverting the democratic process.
And Betsy isn’t the only billionaire doing this. The Koch brothers, their ALEC organization, the Walmart, union hating, poverty wage paying Walton family, Bill Gates, etc. are all doing it.
These billionaires are spending huge sums of money to subvert the Democratic process and bypass voters, that think, who repeadily vote against the oligarchs agendas’ when voters are offered a chance.
Let’s not forget that Hillary Clinton, even after the propaganda from Russia to support Trump, the support for Trump from the FBI, and voter minority suppression in GOP dominated battleground states, and extreme gerrymandering in GOP dominated states, where there are often more registered Democrats than Republicans, didn’t stop almost 3 million more thinking voters from voting for Hillary instead of Trump.
Please, put the blame where it belongs, not on most voting Americans who prove they do think, but on oligarchs that are buying elections and the legislation that supports the agendas of the 0.1 percent.
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I live in the East Valley of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in the town of Chandler. Neighboring towns are Gilbert, Scottsdale, Tempe, and Scottsdale. This is an extremely bright red area. The charter schools now are beginning to outnumber LDS churches, which is quite an accomplishment. Quite a bit of experience I have through my son’s adventures in charter land – his experiences universally horrible: lying, cheating, deceiving, incompetence, etc. Not all, I’m sure, but definitely most; in this state, charter schools are a racket. Meanwhile, the district my son now works in has about 90-98% Hispanic student population with attendant poverty, language issues, etc. Slight-of-hand with figures is the way conservatives try to roll back American education to the days of full ethnic segregation – roll back? We basically have it already. To talk about “schools” in AZ is absurd. I’ve already related my son-in-law’s experience in a rural school near Phoenix on this blog; in another nearby municipality, the conditions were as bad. Here in Chandler, the parents in my grandkids’ school raised some ungodly amount of money for computers in two weeks – I call these the Intel schools. You could spend 10 times as much money on schools in West Phoenix as in the East Valley and still not make a dent.
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Sorry, I meant to include Mesa, not repeat Scottsdale.
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