Override is key to rebound for TUSD

Here's what you need to know about Propositions 401 and 402:

What is included in the package?

Prop. 401 asks voters to approve a 7 percent maintenance and operation override, which would generate $18 million a year for the district. The money would fund full-day kindergarten and increase Internet speed districtwide. The biggest chunk — $10.5 million — would go back to schools as a per-student allocation of roughly $190 to restore a portion of the state budget cuts.

Prop. 402 asks voters for a $9 million capital override. It would replace 10,000 older classroom computers and would improve the network wiring, switches and servers to make the Internet faster and more reliable in classrooms. About $3.5 million annually would go for administrative capital improvements, primarily to replace the inefficient software program used by central administration, which would eliminate the existing paper-driven system in the human resources and finance departments that has historically led to errors.

What would it cost me?

The owner of a house assessed at $176,170 — the citywide average — would spend $82 a year for Prop. 401 and just shy of $40 for Prop. 402.

The owner of a $550,000 business would pay about $563 a year on the first question, and $274 a year for the second.

However, the TUSD can't levy for $11 million in utility costs anymore and reduced the primary tax levy, so if you look at your 2009 property tax statement for the TUSD, it will reflect a dip over last year.

What's the situation in the district right now?

Two earlier override attempts were defeated in 2004 and 2008.

Since reaching an enrollment peak of more than 62,000 students earlier this decade, the TUSD's student count continues to drop. With 1,500 students fewer this year, it's expecting a funding cut of about $10 million. Between that, the $11 million in utility costs and $19 million in state funding reductions, the district has prepared for a cut of $40 million this year. That's on top of $7.5 million in state cuts last year.

No one will dispute that the computers in the district are old — many were purchased with the last override in 1999 — or that the Internet bandwidth is slow. It varies across the district, but in some schools the Internet connection is slower than in neighboring homes.

Nancy Dettman, the career and technology education department chair at Catalina High Magnet School, said her students are as frustrated as their teachers. "Every day it's a new scenario," she said Thursday afternoon. "Today, we had no printers."

Because the computers are missing drives that allow students to save their work, the ones who need more time can't have it.

It breaks down class management, she said. "What it does is chip away at that relationship between teacher and student because when nothing's working, it comes across as disorganization."

And it's affecting grades. "We're not able to be sure who didn't do the work or who just blamed it on everything just disappearing before they had a chance to finish. There are some kids who work the system, but we had to give students the benefit of the doubt this quarter because we don't have a leg to stand on."

Across town at the east side's Magee Middle School, "sometimes students click on save and it runs until it times out, and they have to start the process all over again," math teacher Kathy Anderson said. "With one student, it took him 10 to 15 minutes to log on. It just eats up a lot of class time."

Who's backing it?

Supporters cut a wide swath, from the local unions, including the Tucson Education Association, to the Tucson Association of Realtors, the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Cox Communications and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council. The Pima County Democratic Party has also signed on in support.

Who's opposing it?

The largest, most recognizable group is the Pima Association of Taxpayers.

What are supporters saying?

Frances Merryman, a wealth strategist who sits on the board of Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, was at a dinner party recently when one of the guests pronounced herself against the measure because it would raise her taxes and because she believed one could get a fine education with a candle and the classics. Merryman said she was aghast. "That might have worked for earlier generations, but that will not prepare you for a 21st-century work force."

She said University of Arizona President Robert Shelton told her that he was asked to speak with three young professors who were considering taking jobs in California with three lesser or equal universities because they wanted better schools for their kids.

Another scientist in the biosciences field, Merryman recounted, was told by a recruiter from Tufts University that she was doing a disservice as a parent because her school-aged children were enrolled in the education system here.

She said there has to be an investment in education. "We will have to grow our own, because we can't recruit from the outside because of our dismal education system," she said.

Merryman said there are currently 2,200 unfilled jobs locally with the 180 largest private-sector employers because they can't find qualified workers. "If we don't provide these skills to our students, we will not be competitive and we will not be able to recruit workers here. So, to me, education is absolutely the linchpin of economic development."

The timing isn't perfect, she acknowledged. "But how do you say to a third-grader that we don't have the right economy to educate you and we'll have to leave you behind?"

What are opponents saying?

Opponents say it's irresponsible to burden taxpayers when the recession wiped out 401(k)s and left people at risk of losing their jobs and their homes. And even though supporters have couched the question as costing an extra latte a month, taxpayer advocates say that doesn't count higher prices for goods and services that will come when businesses pass along the additional tax to consumers.

"It's always easy to go to the overtaxed taxpayers," argued David Fossdal, a member of the Pima Association of Taxpayers, at a recent debate.

There's also the question of the district's efficiency.

Opponents contend the district has plenty of money, but has made poor choices, and has run an inefficient operation. Taxpayer leader John Kromko said he is backing, for example, the override election for Amphitheater Public Schools. But the TUSD has raised the ire of his members on a number of levels, from failing to keep strict tabs on district equipment to making questionable land deals and losing out on lucrative government technology funding. "They've been very careless with their resources, and those are the kinds of things that make my friends furious."

Opponents also point out that the district spends less in the classroom, at 53 cents on the dollar, than the statewide average of 57 cents and the national average of 61 cents. Those non-classroom numbers include such positions as counselors and nurses.

Is the district already getting paid to offer all-day kindergarten?

Opponents have argued that the district already gets funding for full-day kindergarten. "The truth is, they are double- and triple-dipping into our pockets," said Mary Terry Schiltz, a longtime watchdog of the district and a member of the taxpayers' association.

Supporters say that's not true.

Who to believe? Well, both sides.

The Legislature passed a bill, with much trumpeting by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano, that took effect in 2008 and allowed districts to offer full-day kindergarten. But, given heated opposition from some circles, it came with a compromise.

In the regular student count that determines how much districts get paid, kindergartners get counted half-time. But Arizona's school funding system also tacks on additional funding to pay for students who cost more to educate. Districts are paid more to educate English-language learners or students with disabilities, for example. Kindergartners also get that extra "group B" weight.

The opponents are right that between the regular student count and the add-on, a kindergartner actually gets full funding — in fact, more funding than a general education third-grader.

Districts, however, get that funding regardless of whether they're actually offering a full-day kindergarten, although most do because it puts them at a competitive disadvantage if they don't.

Bonnie Betz, TUSD chief financial officer, said that when the state took the money back this year, it took it in one lump sum and told the districts to cobble the cuts together however they could. So, technically, she said, the funding could have just as easily come from full-day kindergarten as it did from any other budgetary category.

And, she noted, there's nothing to say that if the cuts continue, the district would be able to continue offering the whole day. Indeed, a few schools have already cut their programs and are asking parents to pay for an extended day through tax credits.

Doesn't the district already get a substantial amount of desegregation funding?

Opponents say they can't feel too sorry for the district, even though it's the only one in the local community without an override. It is one of 19 districts in the state that gets what they call a "de facto override" of about $64 million a year in property taxes to remedy racial discrimination and segregation. It gets more money than any of the others, including Phoenix Union, and has collected about $1 billion over the past two decades, all without voter approval.

"The biggest thing for me, personally, is the desegregation money," said Kromko. "That's huge compared with this puny override, and they're the only district that gets that."

Additionally, he said, the district has spent those resources improperly at various points in its history on things that have not made schools less segregated, such as for office supplies or for custodians.

District officials and supporters counter that it's not a fair comparison.

"These are not funds that are being used willy-nilly for whatever the district wants. There are very restricted uses for these funds," said Ann-Eve Pedersen, a mother of a third-grader in the district and a leader of the Tucson Unified School Supporters.

It isn't allowed to spend deseg money to buy computers, for example, and spread them across the district. The funds must be used to eliminate lingering vestiges of segregation.

Roughly $5 million pays for annual transportation costs. Ethnic studies costs about $4 million. State-mandated four-hour class blocks for English language learners consumes another $7 million. Most of the remainder goes to magnet schools and those schools that were part of the court order to desegregate.

Even if a federal judge lifts the decades-long court order to desegregate, the district expects to keep the desegregation levy. That money would still go for uses such as magnet schools and transportation, since the district is now trying to spur voluntary movement across the district by having schools offer specialized programs or serve unique niches under what it's calling its "First Choice Schools" program.

Is the district to blame for some of this technology backlog in the first place?

Opponents note that the district lost out on millions of federal dollars handed out to schools to enhance technology. Taxes collected by the federal government on phone bills, called E-rate monies, have been withheld in since 2003, most recently while the district remained under investigation for procurement problems, including bid-rigging and conflict-of- interest improprieties. Although the investigation culminated in a civil settlement in January, with the district agreeing to some state oversight of its purchasing program, the funding, with a face value of more than $12 million, has yet to flow to the district.

Supporters note, though, that those problems are remnants of a previous administration and predate the arrival of Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen, who has ushered in new levels of citizen oversight of district operations. Citizens now are appointed to sit on an independent audit committee, a technology oversight committee and a bond oversight committee.

"We can't keep punishing our children for the sins of the adults," said Paul Eckerstrom, chairman of the Invest in Our Kids campaign committee, noting that all of the employees involved were either fired or left the district.

Didn't we just pay for technology improvements with a recent bond package?

Although voters in 2004 shot down the override attempt, they did agree to $235 million in bonds. More than $7 million was intended to upgrade or enhance wireless technology.

The bond funding, however, cannot be used for capital equipment. That means it's off- limits for computers, network switches or even telephones. It is available for in-wall cabling, and the district's Chief Technology Officer Brian MacMaster said the money would be used for cabling to accommodate higher-speed bandwidth if the override passes.