Lawmakers may shift the responsibility for education funding to local property owners as a way of coping with staggering budget deficits in the near future, even though it would translate to higher property taxes.


“It may have to be (an option) because I just don’t know where we’re going to find money,” said Rep. John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican. He chairs the Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives.


“We may well have to require local governments and taxpayers to pick up more of the burden.”

Maricopa Community Colleges will consider hiking district property taxes next month, but the measure could face resistance at a time when most county residents are feeling economic pain.


Maricopa County Community College District administrators have asked the governing board for a 2 percent increase in property-tax revenues, or $7.5 million, to bring total revenues to about $359 million.

Arizona classrooms are the third-most crowded in the nation, and they're about to get squeezed further.


A recession forced the Legislature this year to cut money for K-12 education, school-tax revenues are falling, and enrollment is declining, which means less per-student state funds but often consolidated classes. Next year looks no better, and federal stimulus dollars are seen as a short-term patch by many schools.

A legal loophole that has allowed the Tucson Unified School District to rake in hundreds of millions of extra dollars over the past 25 years may be about to slam shut.


There is no doubt TUSD and 18 other like-minded Arizona school districts need the extra money, which they say is for desegregating schools.


But the way the money has been collected is constitutionally iffy, with school districts given free rein to dip into taxpayers' pockets with no limits and no voter approval.

Emily Gersema / The Arizona Republic


Several windows in the administration and gym buildings at Power Ranch Elementary have cracks in the corners of the stucco and concrete that frames them. Higley Unified School District officials say this has allowed rain water to seep in.

Jack Kurtz/The Arizona Republic


The old Ramada Inn in downtown Phoenix has been a hotel and a dorm and is now vacant.


The same week that Phoenix leaders imposed a 2 percent food tax to prevent layoffs and painful cuts to city services, City Council members agreed to spend $6 million to buy a vacant motel so Arizona State University can expand its downtown campus.

A state lawmaker is proposing a new diploma that would allow high school students to attend community colleges or technical schools as early as sophomore year.


Rep. Rich Crandall, a Mesa Republican and chairman of the House Education Committee, said the Grand Canyon Diploma would address the problem of high school students who meet the AIMS test standards early and simply coast toward graduation.

Voters have one week left to decide how they will vote in Dysart's override election.


The Dysart Unified School District is asking voters to approve a 15 percent maintenance-and-operations budget override.


If approved, it would replace the district's current 10 percent M&O override and 5 percent K-3 override and would continue funding programs supported by those overrides.


Justin Olson, senior research analyst at the Arizona Tax Research Association, said school districts like Dysart will have real challenges going to the ballot this month.

PHOENIX - There is a new pledge to save education, as the governor plans to cut millions of dollars, but it’s not from lawmakers. Arizona ranks 49th in the nation for K-12 investment and has one of the highest dropout rates. An organization called “Arizona Education Commitment” is urging lawmakers to find other ways to balance the budget, saying the State Constitution explicitly prioritized education.

TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) - Arizona's new budget is hitting a lot more high school students in Pima County.


The state is making, what is being called a devastating budget cut, to JTED, the Joint Technical Education District.

That is the voter-approved high school career and technical education program that serves some 24,000 high school students in Pima County.

Career and technical education in Pima County isn't the old shop class you might be used to.

There are traditional vocational programs, all the way to engineering and bio-technology classes and labs.