Ducey’s council makes K-12 recommendations, but details are vague

Regional News

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A council empaneled by Gov. Doug Ducey to reform Arizona’s school funding formula released a set of ambitious recommendations. But exactly how they are to be achieved, how they will be funded and what steps the governor will take in the upcoming legislative session remain to be seen.

“What we did is really tackle the ‘what’ and the ‘why.’ We did not particularly delve into the ‘how.’ The ‘how’ is going to be a complex, complicated process with a lot of input,” Jim Swanson, co-chair of the Classrooms First Initiative Council, said at today’s meeting. “But for us to be successful, I think we need to give the governor and Legislature some room to maneuver and come up with some solutions that make sense.”

In his 2015 executive order creating the Classrooms First Initiative Council, Ducey asked for its recommendations, but not for a plan to implement them.

The council unveiled 12 recommendations in a report at a meeting on Wednesday. The recommendations were the result of nearly 18 months of meetings and work with stakeholders.

The recommendations included the simplification of Arizona’s K-12 funding formulas, the creation of standardized and consolidated tax rates among school districts, reducing districts’ reliance on funding methods such as bonds and overrides, giving the Arizona Department of Education and State Board of Education more latitude to use the rulemaking process to implement school finance statutes, additional funding for schools in low-income areas, and higher pay for teachers.

Ducey emphasized to the council that implementing the recommendations would be a long-term project, but that he aims to make progress on it every year and hopes to lay out a road map that future governors can follow as well.