Ducey, DuVal split on education funding in debate

“The Supreme Court has ruled,” he said during an hour-long televised debate.

“We’ve lost five years,” he said, years during which lawmakers and Gov. Jan Brewer approved budgets that did not increase state aid to schools to account for inflation despite a voter-approved mandate to the contrary. “We’ve lost half a generation.”

Republican Doug Ducey said he will pay up only after a new round of challenges makes its way back to the state’s high court.

Education issues were front and center during the first of five debates or joint appearances between the nominees before the general election. While both insisted education is important, their approaches to funding both public schools and universities differed.

In the case of the failure to meet inflation, Arizona may be forced to cough up not just the extra $300 million a year but another $1.3 billion in missed payments.

DuVal wants to simply give the higher per-student state aid and past-due money to the schools. But Ducey said if the state is forced to pay, he does not want to give up the money until the state comes up with a new way to allocate it rather than the current per-student basis.

Ducey provided no specifics, though, saying only he wants to find new ways to ensure more money reaches teachers and the classrooms.

Less clear is where the state will get the money.

The state has enough money in its “rainy day fund” to make the first-year payments. But moderator Braham Resnick of KPNX-TV pointed out the state already is looking at a deficit the following budget year, even without additional payments.

DuVal said he wants to look at reforming the state’s procurement system used to purchase supplies and services. He also said some services could be privatized, like the Arizona Lottery, with a private firm providing cash to the state.

But, pushed for proposals that actually would generate the kind of dollars needed, DuVal balked.

“I’ll tell you what I won’t do,” he said. “I won’t cut income taxes.”

That was a direct slap at Ducey, who has said he’d like to move toward eliminating that levy, or at least making it “flatter and fairer.”

He said, though, that would take a term — or two. And Ducey said that will eventually produce the kind of new revenues needed to support the state.

In the meantime, Ducey said his experience as a former owner of Cold Stone Creamery gives him the experience to find the money for not just state aid to schools but balance the entire budget.

“I’ll go through this like a businessman,” he said. ‘’There’s no way to fix this budget without kick-starting the economy,” he said, though he provided no specifics.

DuVal poked fun at the concept that further tax cuts will lead to more economic growth.

“We cut taxes in Arizona 23 of the last 24 years in a race to be more competitive,” he said, but pointed out that job recovery in Arizona after the recession still lags behind much of the rest of the country.

Ducey also repeated his opposition to the Common Core academic standards, which Arizona adopted under Brewer

“It began as a good idea,” he said, but one that became “unworkable.” And he said it’s wrong to tie federal aid to schools to state participation.

DuVal is supportive. He said they are necessary to prepare students for a 21st century economy.

The question of university funding and tuition also divided the pair.

Republicans have attacked DuVal for the fact that tuition doubled during his six years as a member of the Arizona Board of Regents. DuVal defended the move, saying while the board cut expenses it had to deal with sharp decreases in state spending even as enrollment was increasing.

Ducey, however, said it was wrong to impose such a sharp increase in tuition. He said the regents, including DuVal, should have instead found ways to cut spending.

“You have to tighten your budget,” Ducey said. And when pressed for how he would do that, Ducey responded, “I’m not here to do Fred’s job as a regent.”

On other issues, the pair also disagreed on the question of whether gays should be allowed to marry.

DuVal called it “high time” to recognize those unions; Ducey said he supports “traditional marriage” but promised to treat everyone with “dignity and kindness.”

They did find common ground on the issue of SB 1062: Both supported the decision last year by Brewer to veto legislation that would have allowed businesses to refuse service to some people based on the owners’ sincerely held religious beliefs.