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:
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
30th in order to be counted.
Sincerely,
Gilbert
Supporters of the Gifted Executive Board
Stephanie
Newitt, President
Pam Walton,
Vice-President
Terri Grubb,
Treasurer/Secretary
