e-Edition

Comments?

Rate this story

Email this story

Print this story

FUSD budget override deserves to be renewed

Our view: The school district has shown since 1994 that it can spend the extra $5.7 million a year wisely.


Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Today is the last day to cast ballots for the FUSD budget override, and we urge district voters to turn in ballots marked "Yes."

It is easy to throw stones at how an 11,000-student public school district should be run. But it's far from easy to run any public educational enterprise in Arizona, given the restrictive local funding formulas and the underfunding by the Legislature. The result is a public spending level on education that ranks Arizona near the bottom of the 50 states. It is not only an embarrassment but completely unnecessary. Arizona is not a particularly high-tax state, and poll after poll has shown that voters want higher education spending -- or at least not as deep cuts during tough economic times.

An override of $45 for every $100,000 of a home's market value at least lets local voters exceed arbitrary budget limits that have little to do with either the educational need or the financial capacity of local residents to meet that need. More than a hundred Arizona school districts have taken advantage of the 10 percent override allowance, including FUSD back in 2004.

Now it is time to renew the override, and as we have noted in this space before (Editorial, Oct. 11, 2009), the district has delivered on its promise back then to keep class sizes relatively small, reduce the extracurricular "pay to play" fee, and support art, music, phys ed, librarians and school nurses. We have no reason to doubt that the district will continue to spend the extra $5.7 million a year on these worthwhile programs, which is why we urge a yes vote on the override.

Conversely, if the measure fails, we have every reason to believe that most of those programs will disappear, to the detriment of what a well-rounded public-school education should contain. Critics contend that the district could find the extra money if it closed some school buildings and cut administrators, but they offer no documentation for those claims. District voters have said in the past they support smaller, more numerous schools, but even if two or three were to close, the savings would not approach $5.7 million a year.

Completed, signed ballots must be received by 7 p.m. today in the white mailboxes at one of these locations:

-- Coconino County Elections, 110 E. Cherry Ave., Flagstaff

-- Coconino County Health Department, 2625 N. King St., Flagstaff

-- Coconino County Elections Tuba City Branch Office, Tuba City Library (basement)

Voters can also bring their ballots into the Cherry Avenue office and fill them out at voting booths.

On the Navajo Nation, elections workers will be at the Leupp Senior Center today to collect FUSD ballots and offer translation services.

If you need a replacement ballot, or have further questions about the elections, you can contact the Coconino County Elections office at (800) 793-6181 or (928) 679-7860. The elections office also has informational pamphlets online at www.coconino.az.gov/elections.

It's time to nominate your friends and neighbors for the Arizona Daily Sun's Citizen of the Year award. It comes in three categories: Man, Woman and Organization of the Year. The award recognizes someone who has made Flagstaff a better place in the past year as a volunteer, not in their line of work.

To make a nomination, send an e-mail to Publisher Don Rowley. Mail and faxes are OK, too, but please limit your nominating letters to one page. There's no application form to fill out. Nominators should simply say why they think a certain individual or group has made Flagstaff a better place to live because of their volunteer efforts.

Nominations in all three categories will be accepted through the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and winners will be announced in the newspaper at the turn of the new year. Judging will be done by a panel of previous winners and not by the Daily Sun.

Nominations can be mailed to the Daily Sun at 1751 S. Thompson St., Flagstaff, AZ 86001 or dropped off at the newspaper's office, care of the publisher, Don Rowley. The e-mail address is drowley@azdailysun.com. The fax number is 774-4790, and faxed nominations will be accepted. For more information, please call Publisher Don Rowley at 556-2240.

---

»Subscribe to the Arizona Daily Sun

---

---

---

---

Print this story

Email this story

Return to Opinion