Ballot questions: school districts

 At the beginning of September, I wrote a post urging all voters to vote "No" on all statewide ballot questions.

However, the statewide questions won't be the only ones considered by voters.

Many counties and municipalities will also have questions on the ballot; and unless they're related to Flock cameras (and similar technology) and/or data centers, I almost certainly won't cover the ones that aren't on my particular ballot.

Also on the ballot will be many questions from school districts across the state.

Note: I generally support school district ballot questions.  The Republicans in the state legislature are well-known for woefully and maliciously underfunding public education.  It's incumbent on the residents of those districts to adequately fund their schools (and to stop giving the Rs a majority in the lege, but that may be a topic for another post).

Note2: I live in the Balsz school district and will vote "Yes" on my ballot, but not all districts are as well-run.  I recommend that all voters make their own choices.

From the website of the Maricopa County School Superintendent -

There are 27 districts in Maricopa County with questions on the ballot (some districts will have more than one question).

From the website of the Pima County School Superintendent -

From the website of the Yavapai County School Superintendent -

 

From the website of the Pinal County School Superintendent -

The website of the Mohave County School Superintendent doesn't list any school district ballot questions.

The above counties are the five most populous counties in AZ; there are 10 other counties here.  If you live in one of them, or anywhere in the state of Arizona for that matter, do your due diligence on school district elections in your area.

Arizona's public schools are leading the way...in the race to the bottom

Earlier this week, the magazine Consumer Affairs published a study that ranked public education systems in each state, and Arizona came in dead last.

From AZFamily, written by staff and Sarah Robinson, dated 9/16 -

Report ranks Arizona worst in nation for public education

A new analysis claims that Arizona ranks the worst in the nation for public education, citing examples like average ACT scores, graduation rates, overall funding and higher education quality.

ConsumerAffairs, a consumer research firm and customer review platform, analyzed data from all 50 states and found that the Grand Canyon State falls short of delivering quality education.

Tom Horne, Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction, pooh-poohed the results.

From the same story -

“We are last in the country, I think, in our funding per pupil,” Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said.

[snip]

Arizona also has the fifth-lowest high school graduation rate.

Horne questioned the use of graduation rates as a key metric.

“You can increase your graduation rate just by lowering your standards. And you would be graduating kids who can’t read,” he said.

[snip]

“I don’t think this is an accurate study. I think some of the aspects are,” he said

From the study-

Of course, the low ranking for public ed didn't stop Horne from running ads that shamelessly tout school vouchers to take funding from public schools and give it to private schools.