A special election to decide the fate of Proposition 123, an education funding plan, is Tuesday.
The plan is part of a settlement agreement to a yearslong lawsuit over the stateβs failure to fund inflation adjustments, according to a previously approved ballot measure.
School districts β including the Cave Creek Unified School District β and education groups sued the state in 2010. The Arizona Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court found that the state did not fund inflation adjustments in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
The plan would put more than $3 billion into Arizonaβs schools over the next 10 years. An analysis of the plan from the Grand Canyon Institute showed that the settlement plan would only make up for about 70 percent of the lost base-level funding.
The plan dips into the stateβs Trust Land Endowment, from which K-12 education was already getting a slice. The allocation rate would increase from 2.5 to 6.9 percent, which would boost base-level per-pupil funding from about $3,400 to $3,600.
It also comes with what its supporters say are protections for the stateβs economy.
Inflation funding could be suspended if the stateβs sales tax and employment rates are less than 2 percent, if the allocation to K-12 education from the general fund exceeds 49 percent or the increased distribution rate from the land trust puts it at a lower level than the previous year.
Supporters of the measure include Gov. Doug Ducey, state House Speaker David Gowan, the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Arizona Charter School Association and the Arizona Education Association, which is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
βThere would be more money available for salaries, class-size management, structural support,β Andrew Morrill, president of the Arizona Education Association, previously told the Star. βItβs an immediate chance at relief.β
Opponents include State Treasurer Jeff DeWit; Morgan Abraham, the president of the Pima County Working Young Democrats and chairman of the No on Prop. 123 committee; and Stanley Feldman, a former Arizona Supreme Court justice.
βThe current legislative majority reneged on Prop. 301, which is how we got to this point, so who can say that future Legislatures would not be as willing to violate the public trust?β Feldman wrote in a guest opinion in the Arizona Daily Star.
The governing boards of several Pima County school districts, including the Sunnyside Unified School District, have already voted for measures to ensure that teacher pay is boosted should the proposition pass.
