The deadline to renew Proposition 123 is looming and there is no consensus between Republicans and Democrats on how much funding schools should receive and how it should be allocated.
Democratic lawmakers and a teachers union said they would rather wait until a new set of lawmakers is elected to address teacher pay and renew the 2016 voter-approved measure the way it was first passed through a special election.
Though conversations centered around teacher pay are taking place, there still is no total agreement even within the Republican Party, according to Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert.
“We are short a couple votes,” he said in a text message.
Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, said Democratic lawmakers are following the lead of education groups and the teacher union but have been largely uninvolved in teacher pay talks.
“My sense is that waiting until the next session might be a better option, because we are unable to get any movement on the Republican proposal, which is really not a very workable solution,” Marsh, a public-school teacher, said. “So if we wait, I think the general sense is that it really could only get better.”
Republicans have a slim majority in both chambers of the state Legislature, which Democrats hope to flip in the November election. With the current legislative session wrapping up soon and most lawmakers eyeing their re-election campaign, a teacher pay plan might not be fully considered until around this time next year.
Proposition 123 was former Gov. Doug Ducey’s plan to deal with a 2013 Arizona Supreme Court ruling that the state had ignored a 2000 voter-approved mandate to increase state aid to schools annually to keep pace with inflation.
Ducey, who took office in 2015, declined to increase taxes to comply with that ruling. Instead, he came up with a plan to tap into a special trust fund that consists of the money the state earns from the sale and lease of about 10 million acres of land Arizona was given by the federal government when it became a state in 1912. Voters narrowly approved the plan. Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, said the group is open to delaying negotiations on Prop. 123 to allow for discussion that isn’t “wrapped up in national politics or flipping the Legislature.” She said passing Prop. 123 in a May special election in 2016 gave people more time to consider the plan.
Garcia said AEA is hopeful for a Democratic majority in the Legislature next year, but will work with either party on the issue as long as they are “focused on preserving public education.”
When Republicans introduced their teacher pay proposal in 2023, it featured the same 6.9% state land trust distribution rate that voters passed in 2016 on the caveat that funding would only go to increase teacher salaries.
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs responded with a plan that would increase the distribution rate to 8.9% while sharing the revenue with school support staff such as janitors and counselors but putting most of the funding toward a raise for teachers.
Since, Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, threw another measure into the mix which would give raises to all “eligible” charter and district teachers. His proposal defined “eligible teacher” as a person who is employed for a full school day or otherwise carries a full class load and devotes more than 75% of their time to student instruction. The raise would also apply to a full-time special education teacher who puts greater than 50% of their time to student academic achievement.
Hoffman’s proposal would make teachers who fall in the lowest two performance categories ineligible for the raise.
Democrats opposed Hoffman’s performance-based raise proposal. While Republicans agree that the pay raise should only be for teachers, they do not all support the Freedom Caucus leader’s proposal.
“In my opinion, these need to be worked and improved to broaden the coalition while maintaining the fundamental intent,” Sen. Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, said when the Senate Education Committee heard both Republican proposals in February. “There’s going to be some disagreements on what that fundamental intent is.”
Though both sides agree that Prop.123 must be renewed, neither side has budged when it comes to where the appropriations should go.
Democrats, education groups and teacher unions still believe that if teachers get a raise, school support staff should as well. This could include, but is not limited to: janitorial staff, librarians and nurses. Marsh said a part of her advocacy in Prop.123 negotiations would include advocating for higher pay for school counselors in hope of reducing the student to counselor ratio in the state.
“We have among the highest student to counselor ratio in the nation,” Marsh said. “Counselors are actually primarily academic counselors, helping students choose which classes are best for them and helping them with the college application process.”
Garcia said AEA wants to make sure Prop. 123 funding goes to the “entire school community.”
“There should be no winners and losers,” Garcia said. “That’s a false narrative that teachers are the only people that need a raise.”
Marsh also said lawmakers could set a date in the proposal that the distribution rates be adjusted if the percentage they decide on is too high or low.
“As far as I am concerned, 8.9% is not the hill I would die on,” Marsh said.
She said the bottom line is that the proposal was barely passed by voters in 2016.
“It was so hard to get the 2016 version of Prop. 123 across the finish line,” Marsh said. “It absolutely has to be bipartisan.”
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