Democratic lawmakers are calling on Governor Doug Ducey to go beyond the current school funding proposal.
In his State of the State address on Monday afternoon, Ducey urged democrats, who had previously opposed Proposition 123, to now rally behind the legislation as it heads to voters in May. It would settle the ongoing lawsuit over inflation funding for schools by tapping the state land trust for $3.5 billion over the coming decade.
Democratic State Senator Steve Farley of Tucson said that still won’t come close to meeting all the unfunded needs in Arizona schools, including aging infrastructure, textbooks and computers, and poor teacher retention.
“All those things cost money, and all those were the things cut by this majority over the last five years and none of those would be paid for by Prop 123. It just funds inflation, so we need to do a lot more than that,” Farley said.
Some democrats have pointed to the current surplus as one revenue source for education.
Among his plans, Ducey said he will allow top performing public school to expand at lower costs and to reward those with more students completing AP level courses.
