Alia Beard Rau

The Republic | azcentral.com

Nearly three-fourths of Arizona voters surveyed in a new poll said the state is not spending enough money on K-12 public district and charter school students.

And the narrow passage of Proposition 123 in May seems to have done little to change that belief.

The Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll found 74 percent of registered voters said the state is spending “too little” on K-12 public education, 13.5 percent said the state is spending about the right amount, 3.9 percent said the state is spending too much and 8.4 percent said they didn’t know. The poll surveyed 784 registered voters between Aug. 17 and Aug. 31. The margin of error was 2.8 percentage points.

Arizona voters in May narrowly passed Prop. 123, approving a measure that is expected to provide public schools $3.5 billion over the next 10 years. About $2.2 billion of that is supposed to come from the state land trust fund. The proposal was part of an agreement to settle a years-long lawsuit over the state inadequately funding school inflation payments during the Great Recession.

But that influx of money does not seem to have moved the needle enough for voters.

In a February 2015 poll by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy and Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 74 percent of Arizona voters polled also said the state was spending too little on K-12 education.

And the concern appears to be across the board. The numbers of the latest poll don’t waver dramatically when broken down by political party registration, education levels, gender, location or race of the individuals polled.

Sixty-three percent of registered Republicans said the state was spending too little, compared with 88 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of independents or other parties.

Seventy-six percent of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher said the state was spending too little, compared with 70 percent of those with some college and 72 percent of those with a high school diploma or less.

Seventy-six percent of women polled said the state was spending too little, compared with 72.5 percent of men polled.

Eighty-two percent of Hispanics polled said the state was spending too little, compared with 73 percent of individuals who identified themselves as white.

Seventy percent of those polled age 51 and older said the state was spending too little, compared with 82.5 percent of those age 36-50 and 77 percent of those age 18-35.

“It matches the exit polling we did on May 17 with Prop. 123,” said Arizona Education Association President Joe Thomas. “We saw overwhelming majorities that wanted to see more money going to education. We even saw a majority of voters going against Prop. 123 that still said they wanted more money going into education."

Thomas said he hopes voters make education funding a key issue.

“I hope it’s something they’re asking people running for the state Legislature,” he said. “It’s easy to say you want great schools. But what lawmakers have to understand is that involves financial investment. And if policy makers don’t have the political will to do it, it’s up to the voters."

Policy makers said the will is there.

“We all want a good education for our kids, and we’ve got to have it. We’ve got to compete in the global marketplace,” said Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I’m really earnestly seeking solutions to how we can increase our education funding. I think almost every member of the Legislature would like to do that."

Shooter said he hopes the state’s economy and tax revenues continue to improve, giving the Legislature additional options to boost school funding. But he said there are no specific proposals on the table.

“My hope is the governor will have some proposals,” he said. “I know they’re working on it, but I don’t know how far along they are."

Daniel Scarpinato, spokesman for Gov. Doug Ducey, said education funding continues to be a top priority for the governor.

"The governor has been very clear on this issue since he rolled out the land-trust proposal over a year ago," Scarpinato said. "He has heard from teachers, from parents, from educators and from citizens that resources in our schools are an issue."

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Scarpinato said Prop. 123 will bring new resources into the schools, but said Ducey has repeatedly said he is not finished.

"We're going to look for other ways, particularly targeted programs that we know work," Scarpinato said. "We are in the process of developing the agenda for next session."

Rep. Paul Boyer, R-Phoenix, chairman of the House Education Committee, said some of the statistics about state spending on education are misleading. He touted data that shows Arizona is 12th in the nation in terms of the percentage of general fund dollars spent on K-12 education as of fiscal 2015. But he said that doesn’t mean schools are getting enough.

He said he supports expanding Prop. 301, which currently designates six-tenths of a cent per dollar in sales taxes to education, to a full cent. The tax is set to expire in 2020. He said he hopes that discussion will begin next legislative session.

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About The Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll