Monday, July 19, 2010

Survey: 2010 Arizona State Legislative Candidates

Survey: 2010 Arizona State Legislators Election


Click here to find your District
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View the original post on our website here: http://www.arizonaeducationnetwork.com/2010/07/survey-2010-az-legislator-election/
 
For information about facts on school choice, funding, taxes, as well as our protocol and a blank copy of the survey, please see below. If a candidate did not submit a survey, it is noted by their name.
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For a bar graph overview on how each question was answered by all candidates, click Overview of Survey 2010.


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District 1: General Area: North-Central AZ; Cottonwood, Prescott, Sedona, Williams

District 2: General Area: Northeast AZ/Grand Canyon; Flagstaff, Hopi Reservation, and Navajo Nation

District 3: General Area: West & NW AZ; Bullhead City, Fredonia, Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Page

District 4: General Area: West-Central AZ; Black Canyon City, Sun City West, Northern Surprise

District 5: General Area: Eastern AZ; Clifton, Globe, Holbrook, Payson, Safford, Show Low, St. Johns, Winslow

District 6: General Area: Phoenix N of Thunderbird Rd, Between 51st Ave and 16th St

District 7: General Area: Phoenix N of Thunderbird Rd, between 16th St and Pima Rd

District 8: General Area: Scottsdale, Fountain Hills

  • Senate: Michele Reagan
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (480) 922-7370
    Email: VoteReagan@cox.net
  • Senate: Stuart Turnansky
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (480) 809-8000
    Email: s1tur@aol.com

District 9: General Area: Peoria, Sun City, Nort-Central Glendale, Youngtown

District 10: General Area: Phoenix and part of Glendale between Northern& Bell Rd, 51st Ave and Cave Creek Rd

District 11: General Area: Paradise Valley, North-Central Phoenix

District 12: General Area: Buckeye, El Mirage, Glendale, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Surprise

District 13: General Area: Phoenix West of Grand Ave, South of Camelback Rd, to Tolleson and Avondale

District 14: General Area: Phoenix West-Central, North of Van Buren to Glendale

  • Senate: Robert Meza
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (602) 326-4432
    Email: elizmf@yahoo.com

District 15: General Area: Central Phoenix

District 16: General Area: Phoenix South of Van Buren to South Mountain

District 17: General Area: Tempe

District 18: General Area: West Mesa

District 19: General Area: East Mesa

  • House: Kirk Adams
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (480) 505-9009
    Email: kirk@kirkadams.org
  • House: Kit Filbey
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (480) 981-5300
    Email: kit@maxion.us
  • House: Justin Olson
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (602) 677-2643
    Email: jolson2010@gmail.com
  • House: Scott Perkinson
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (602) 818-4710
    Email: sperkinson@pri.us

District 20: General Area: Ahwatukee, West Chandler, South Tempe

  • Senate: John McComish
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (480) 496-6943
    Email: jpmccomish@cox.net

District 21: General Area: East Chandler, Queen Creek, Sun Lakes

  • Senate: Steve Yarbrough
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (480) 897-1060
    Email: sby@acsto.org

District 22: General Area: Gilbert, South Mesa


District 23: General Area: Central AZ, Apache Junction, Casa Grande, Coolidge, Eloy, Florence, Maricopa, Oracle

District 24: General Area: Southwest AZ, Ehrenberg, Parker, San Luis, Yuma


District 25: General Area: South-Border AZ, Bisbee, Douglas, Gila Bend, Marana, Nogales, Rio Rico, Tonopah

District 26: General Area: North Tucson, Catalina, Oro Valley


District 27: General Area: Central and West Tucson

  • Senate: Olivia Cajero Bedford
    Did not submit survey
    Phone: (602)926-5835
    Email: ocajerob@yahoo.com

District 28: General Area: North and Central Tucson


District 29: General Area: Southeast-Central Tucson, South Tucson

District 30: General Area: Green Valley, Patagonia, Northeast Tucson, East Tucson, Sierra Vista, Southern Tucson, Vail

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Some facts to keep in mind when reading the surveys:
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School Choice:
Arizona already has a robust school-choice environment. In fact, we are a leader nationwide in the school-choice movement. In addition to traditional public schools, Arizona has approximately 500 charter schools, provides public tax credits for private schools, and allows home schooling. However, with all this choice, nearly 90% of the parents still choose to send their children to public schools.
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Taxes:
Our state general fund spending hasn’t varied much when it is compared to the total personal income of Arizona citizens each year. The highest income to state spending ratio in the last 16 years was 5.2% in 1995 – it was 4.7% in 2008.
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What has changed dramatically is our tax structure. Corporate income tax rates have declined from 9.3% in 1990 to 6.98% in 2008. The JLBC reports that our yearly corporate tax revenue was actually lower between 1998-2004 than it was in FY 1997.
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Personal income taxes have dropped from a range of 3.80-7.00% in 1990 to 2.59-4.54% in 2008, and the number of tax credits and loopholes introduced during that time means that many individuals and businesses pay less than their actual published tax rate.
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For more information about taxes, see:
AEN & ASBA--Your Questions Answered, pdf
Arizona Indicators, Public Finance, Arizona Tax Burden : May 2009
Historical Perspective on Arizona's Tax Structure: Past, Present, and Future, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

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Funding: According to most national sources, Arizona ranks near the bottom of all states in per-pupil funding. The latest figures from the 2007-2008 Census Bureau [1] show Arizona at $7, 608 per pupil compared to the national average of $10, 259 per pupil. (New York led the funding at $17, 173 per pupil.)

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It is worth noting that these figures do not include the steep cuts to public education legislators made during the last two years. The Arizona legislature cut $2.2 billion from K-12 and university/community college funding since 2008 [2]. These cuts have crippled many school districts, especially in rural areas. The cuts have resulted in class size increases; the loss of specialist teachers and programs like music, P.E. and gifted services; even the loss of basic necessities like paper. While some point to high administrative costs to justify these cuts, administrative costs in Arizona for public schools average nearly 2% less than the national average of 9.0%.
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To read more about funding issues, see:
AZ School--Examination of the Facts ,
Arizona Auditor General Report on Classroom Spending 2009: A Closer Look
Per Pupil Spending by State 2007-2008 [1]
Education Reductions, Plus Rollovers, January 2009 [2] (This entailed cuts of over $1 billion to K-12 education in the last 18 months plus the additional borrowing of nearly $1 billion from the schools to help fill the deficit.)
Budget Cuts JLBC July 2010

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Survey Protocol:
All candidates running for the state Senate or House of Representatives in the 2010 primary were asked to complete our survey on issues surrounding public education in Arizona. The survey consists of 12 multiple-choice questions. A comment section follows each section allowing candidates the opportunity to clarify or elaborate upon their answers. Per our protocol, candidates were emailed the survey on on June 22 and sent two reminder emails prior to the July 16 deadline. If a candidate did not submit a survey, it is noted by their name.
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You may wish to take the survey yourself to help you identify your own educational priorities; or, you may want to mail a copy to a candidate who did not return a survey to AEN. Click Blank Survey 2010, pdf to get a copy of the survey for your use.

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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Superintendent of Public Instruction Debates: July 2010

Phoenix-based PBS channel Eight recently aired a special edition of Horizon where host Ted Simons moderated two Clean Elections debates with the candidates running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. The first debate featured Republican candidates Margaret Dugan, John Huppenthal, and Beth Price. The second debate featured the Democratic candidates Penny Kotterman and Jason Williams.

A wide variety of education subjects including teacher accountability, standards, AIMS testing, education spending and all-day kindergarten were addressed.

To learn more about the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and its importance go to Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction; Why You Should Pay Attention to this Office

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To view the Democratic Candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction debate, click on video link below.
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To view the Republican Candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction debate, click video link below.
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To learn more about the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and its importance go to Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction; Why You Should Pay Attention to this Office
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Traditional Public School Performance Outpaces Charters According to AZ Learns Data

.An analysis by the Arizona Education Network of the Arizona Learns 2008-2009 Achievement Profiles for All Schools published by the Arizona Department of Education shows that traditional public schools performed better than charter schools over the same period.

The report lists the performance results of 463 charter schools and 1432 non-charter, traditional public schools. Breakdowns of the schools' performance ratings are as follows.

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School Performance Ratings by Type of School
Number Percent
Rating Traditional Charter Traditional Charter
Excelling 321 74 22.42% 15.98%
Highly Performing 214 35 14.94% 7.56%
Performing Plus 511 98 35.68% 21.17%
Performing 349 229 24.37% 49.46%
Underperforming 21 24 1.47% 5.19%
Failing: 16 3 1.12% 0.65%
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When the top three categories (Excelling, Highly Performing, and Performing Plus) are aggregated, 73.04% of traditional non-charter schools are in these three categories versus 44.71% of charter schools. Most concerning are the 5.25% of charter schools that are underperforming or failing versus 2.7% for traditional schools in these categories.

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For additional information, see below:

Arizona Learns 2008-2009 Achievement Profiles for All Schools

State's original charter schools up for renewal, East Valley Tribune, July 2, 2010

Arizona State Board for Charter Schools


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