From the Office of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey:
"Governor Doug Ducey has announced a fiscally-sound, responsible spending plan that would inject $1.8 billion into K-12 schools over five years — without burdening the state budget or raising taxes on Arizonans."
“It was an honor to stand shoulder to shoulder with education leaders from across the state today as the Governor announced his proposal to inject billions of new dollars into Arizona’s K-12 education system over the next decade,” said Republican Party of Maricopa County Communications Director and Higley Unified School District School Board Member Jake Hoffman. “Education leaders, like myself, have been calling for sensible solutions to address education funding and it is refreshing to see fearless leadership from our Governor to make this a reality without raising taxes.”
There’s Jake in the second row, on the left wearing a light blue shirt! But who’s the dark-haired guy in the third row, wearing glasses?
Ahhhh…. It’s another conservative rising star: Greg Hansen!
Here’s how Governor Ducey’s plan works:
"In 2012, then-State Treasurer Ducey created and championed Prop 118, a measure that simplified how schools receive funds from the state’s land trust in order to ensure more consistent, reliable funding to K-12 schools.
"The percentage that was set for distribution was 2.5 percent each year, with 93 percent of that money going to K-12 education.
"Governor Ducey’s new proposal would increase the current distribution formula from 2.5 percent to 10 percent for a period of five years. If approved, the governor’s plan would give schools about $1.8 billion more than they would receive under the current formula in the first five years. After that, the formula would shift to 5 percent for the following five years — double the current rate.
"Governor Ducey has called on the Legislature to take up this proposal and refer it to the ballot for voters to approve.
"How much money are we talking about?
"What is the state land trust?
"More than a century ago, Arizona’s leaders set up a trust – the state’s Permanent Land Endowment Trust Fund. These are lands our nation entrusted to Arizona for the benefit of public K-12 education.
"The Land Trust continues to grow and earn interest today.
"Dollars are then distributed to beneficiaries – mainly to public K-12 education.
"That was the vision at its inception – that these funds go to our schools, our teachers, our kids.
"How does the plan impact the state land trust fund?
"The amount of money in the state land trust fund would increase from our current $5.15 billion to $5.39 billion after five years (FY2021).
"That means even distributing more money, we’ll still have more money in the fund than we do today."