Gifted Education Funding

This year Gilbert Public Schools and other districts in Arizona are asking voters to support budget overrides.  Per Gilbert Supporters of the Gifted by-laws, one of our missions is to educate our members on issues pertinent to gifted education.  Therefore, Gilbert Supporters of the Gifted (GSG) publicly states that we are in support of both the 2015 override and bond initiatives.  

• Why would a budget override be pertinent to gifted education?
• Why would a bond be pertinent to gifted education?

The Budget Override

First to explain what an override is:  “Since 1980, the Arizona Legislature has allowed school districts to supplement their base budgets by asking voters in their local districts to approve a budget override.  If approved by voters, this override will allow GPS to supplement its operation budget by 10% more than the state provided funds.  This election authorizes the increase for seven years, but funding is reduced after year five per state law.” 

In other words, if the state legislature does not fund public education at the level communities expect in order to have desired programs, the district has permission through state law to ask the local community through an election to directly fund their local public school district.  Money obtained from a local override does not get processed through the state sieve of budget reallocations; rather the money stays local and this means local control.

If you haven’t seen the Gilbert Public Schools’ Election Information presentation on the budget, you can do so by visiting the GPS homepage, and clicking on the appropriate links, as indicated by the yellow arrow below.  The district has Fact Sheets as well as FAQ sheets to assist voters in understanding these important budget issues.

The graph below, which is part of the Gilbert Public Schools’ budget presentation, shows the history of state funding for the GPS Maintenance & Operations (M&O) budget and how local community overrides supplemented the M&O budget.  By law, M&O budgets are to be used for teacher & staff salaries, curriculum and classroom supplies. 

 

You will notice, that the combination of state M&O funding (blue) and local M&O override funding (orange) has never returned to 2009 levels.  Districts are expected to do more with less, but GPS is not able to pay their teachers a competitive wage.  Mesa and Chandler school districts have voter passed overrides and have chosen to invest in their public education.  Their teachers and staff are paid a competitive wage, whereas teachers in Gilbert are not.  GPS has lost great teachers and staff to these districts, including gifted endorsed teachers.

Again, what does this have to do with gifted education funding?  On the map below you will see how states compare across the nation regarding both mandated gifted education as well as the funding commitment to gifted education.  Arizona falls into the category of the states that have unfunded mandates for gifted education.

Now, Arizona wasn’t always categorized as an “orange” state.  Arizona used to partially fund gifted education.  When did the state of Arizona defund gifted education?  The table below shows the history of Arizona’s gifted education funding.

According to the table, Arizona decreased gifted education funding in 2009-2010, and completely defunded gifted education beginning in 2010-2011.  When the state defunded gifted education, districts across the state had to use general funds from their (M&O) budget to pay for these services.  Again, by law, M&O budgets can only be used for salaries, curriculum and classroom supplies.  We therefore see that at the same time the Arizona state legislature decreased M&O funding to districts across the state, they also defunded gifted education in our state.  This means Gilbert Public Schools REALLY has had to do more with less.

Gilbert Public Schools is committed to providing gifted education services even in times of economic struggle.  Gilbert Supporters of the Gifted (GSG) is grateful for the district support of the GPS Gifted Education Vision and Mission Statement, which was GPS board approved in December 2012.  The GPS Gifted Education Parent Council has worked in partnership with GPS and GSG to provide appropriate supports and feedback towards the fruition of the GPS Gifted Education Vision & Mission.

We invite you to vote yes on the 2015 GPS budget override.

The Bond

What is a bond?  “A bond allows local voters to approve additional funding to use for capital items such as school buses, building renovations, and deferred maintenance and technology.”

Why does GPS need additional capital funding?  “In fiscal year 2015-16, GPS expects to receive $2.7 million in capital funding from the state, which is an 85% reduction from the $17.9 million received in fiscal year 2010-11.  Because of the reduced state funding, school repairs have been deferred, older buses have remained in service, and technology has not been updated.  The increased capital funding will address the most immediate needs in these areas.”

The chart below is, again, from the GPS budget presentation.  From this chart you can see how the Arizona legislature has decreased its funding for capital items, despite the state dictated formula stating required levels of funding.

How are your children affected by safe buildings?  Properly working air conditioning?  Properly functioning transportation?  Current instead of out dated technology?  These are the educational needs that the state is no longer funding sufficiently.  These are the budget items that will be supported by the 2015 bond. 

In spite of state lack of support for public education, we as a community can still have the great teachers, wonderful programs, safe transportation and the updated technology that our children need and deserve if we vote YES, YES for the 2015 override and bond.

For more information, please visit these websites:

• Gilbert Public Schools homepage
• Davidson Institute
• Yesforgilbertstudents.com

We hope you will join us in supporting the 2015 GPS Bond and Budget Override election.  Please vote YES, YES, this October on your mail-in ballot.

** Please note that the ballot for this election is mail-in only and needs to be mailed by October 30^th in order to be counted. 

Sincerely,

Gilbert Supporters of the Gifted Executive Board

Stephanie Newitt, President

Pam Walton, Vice-President

Terri Grubb, Treasurer/Secretary