We are very close to another year of success. Bob Rosenberg and I [Ted Kraver] were at the legislature early yesterday and made a number of contacts with legislators. At 11:30 Representative Mark Anderson called and said the budget reconciliation caucus had adopted the modified instructional technology systems wording of his HB 2742, but dropped the funding to $1,000,000. Later Senate appropriations approved and then the Senate voted on the new version of the HB 2790 Budget Reconciliation; K-12 education. With the House Concur and Final Passage on today’s calendar, the $10.6 billion budget will be ready to send to Governor Napolitano.
Congratulations and a mighty thank you to all who supported this legislationi [0] over the past 5 months!
The funding level is disappointing. But for two years in a row now we have been successful in laying a foundation of policy and pilot programs. Two pioneering legislative leaders have provided enormous support for our efforts: Senator President Ken Bennett last year and House Education Chairman Mark Anderson this year The tide has turned this year. More and more legislators have warmed to the concept that we must take a systems approach to education. The last transformationi [0] of education taxation and funding was lead by a dear friend and legislator David Kret in the 1970’s. His Chapter 15 Title 9.0 has run itsi [0] course.
We must redesign and transform both the tax system for education and the funding for education. In parallel with funding transformation, instructional transformation with eLearningi [0] will produce the dramatic increase in academic, arts, skills and career path education Arizona kids deserve.
The teachers organization and others call this initiative TEF (taxes, education, funding). The Arizona Business and Education Coalition announced yesterday at their annual conference in Scottsdale that transforming the system to finance K-12 education was the prime initiative over the next several years.
The dance was a long time coming. But the band has hit its beat, the mirrored ball is spinning, the floor is filling up and it looks like we are now in full swing to transform Arizona’s K-12 education into the 21st century.