PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey is offering the average Arizona teacher a $900 a year raise — by 2022.
The governor today unveiled his plan to put $114 million in new funds into K-12 education for the coming fiscal year. That is on top of $76 million that schools will get automatically due to both increases in enrollment as well as inflation.
But the governor's big promise during his State of the State speech earlier this week of "recognizing and rewarding the work of our teachers'' would produce just $13.6 million this coming year.
The National Education Association puts the average teacher salary in Arizona at $45,477 a year, the lowest in the nation. With close to 60,000 teachers in the state, that first-year funding comes out to just $225 per teacher.
Gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato said it's the best his boss can do given the state's revenue situation.
"We don't think we can ever do enough to reward our teachers,'' he said. "And so we're doing what we can this year with available dollars.
And Scarpinato said when the raise is fully implemented in five years it will "move the needle for teachers.''
After accounting for one-time expenditures, Ducey's $9.78 billion budget for the new fiscal year is just a 1.8 percent increase. That's less than what would be normal spending growth just to keep pace with inflation and population growth.
It does include some new money for the state's university system.
There is nothing in the plan to restore some of the basic state aid that has been cut since the recession, including $99 million taken directly from schools in Ducey's first term. Instead, there is a one-time $15 million no-strings-attached appropriation that the schools can use for whatever they believe are priorities.
That's being divided up based on student enrollment, with slightly more than half going to Arizona State University, $3.2 million to Northern Arizona University and nearly $4.2 million for the University of Arizona.
But what the governor also proposes is to let the universities keep about $37 they generate in sales taxes and use that as a financing mechanism to make payments to borrow up to $1 billion for the next 30 years. Those bonds would go both for both maintenance that has been put off as well as new research and development projects.
Gubernatorial staffers said having those revenues that will free up the money the universities would otherwise spend on borrowing. But this isn't just state dollars: The cities where the universities are located will lose close to $7 million that they would otherwise get.
In defending the amount of money Ducey is making available for teacher pay, Scarpinato said that is just one piece of what is going into K-12 education.
The plan also includes providing $10 million this coming year that can be used in schools in the poorest neighborhoods for full-day kindergarten.
Arizona at one time had $240 million for such programs statewide, a program that was repealed during the recession. The limited funds will be targeting schools about 80 schools in which at least 90 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, a figure that equals about $37,000 a year for a family of three.
"These are schools that really, really need our help,'' said Dawn Wallace, the governor's education adviser.
She said the aim is to have as many students reading as possible by the third grade. Wallace said, though, that eligible schools are free to use the dollars in any program they want that, including preschool and counselors.
The governor's budget also includes a $1,000 bonus for new teachers who agree to go to work at schools in which at least 60 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Up to about 900 schools statewide fit the definition.
And there's a plan to make another $250,000 available in an existing program that forgives the loans taken out by those who agree to teach math, science and special education. There is currently about $170,000 available.
"You think it's hard getting a math teacher in central Phoenix?'' Wallace asked. "Try getting a math teacher in Winslow.''
Separately, the governor has directed the universities to come up with a plan to both provide scholarships to those who are willing to go into education for at least four years, guaranteeing a job waiting after graduation. But Ducey's budget includes no new money for what that would cost the schools.
And Ducey's proposal includes $38 million for bonuses for schools whose students, on average, score in the top 10 percent statewide in the AzMERIT test, with high-poverty schools getting a $400-per-student bump and $225 for schools with more affluent students.
One area not getting a lot of new dollars is the account for the state to provide dollars for the construction of new schools and repairs to existing ones.
Lawmakers agreed to assume that responsibility after a Supreme Court ruling more than two decades ago which found that leaving that to local taxpayers resulted in gross inequities. But total funding for the coming year in Ducey's budget is just $17 million.
Scarpinato said it comes down to priorities.
"What we really tried to do with building this budget is look at where are the dollars we invest that we have going to make the most difference,'' he said.
"If you talk to parents out there, if you talk to teachers, they're going to tell you that it's the teacher in front of the classroom, that it's the early literacy programs, it connectivity to new programs, to new technology, that those are the things that are going to make the most difference,'' Scarpinato continued. "So that's really where we're pushing the dollars the most because we actually want these dollars to result in improving education in the state.''
But Ducey may not get the last word. The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, which got that historic 1994 ruling voiding the state's method of financing schools, is weighing whether to again ask the courts whether the system has again gotten so out of balance to be unconstitutional.
The governor's budget includes $5 billion to expand broadband Internet access into rural schools. And there also is $20 million available to schools who help districts who have have have signed contracts with teachers for the coming school year but enrollment is less than forecast.
Ducey's budget includes about $20 million in additional funds for state agencies reimburse private contractors who, in the wake of approval of Proposition 206, now have to pay their workers who care for the disabled and others at least $10 an hour.
It also does not include any across-the-board pay hike for what the governor in his State of the State speech called Arizona's "talented state employees.'' The last general raise was in 2008, though employees who agreed to surrender merit protections got a 5 percent boost in 2014.
