Prop 301 and TUSD

Why is the district not spending the $19.7 million

it has to boost teacher pay?

A lesson from the MIT Institute for the public

understanding of patterns and numbers in policy
*MathInTucson.org

What is Prop 301?

In November 2000, voters
approved Prop 301
It creates a 0.6% sales tax
meant for education
The ADE distributes the
money to the districts based
on enrollment; in 2002 the
allocation was $272 per pupil

Where does Prop 301

money go?
This data is for FY2016

Universities

$69,563,042

Comm. Colleges

$17,390,760

Tribal Colleges

$775,156

Added school days

$86,280,500

School safety

$8,000,000

Accountability

$7,000,000

Failing schools

$1,500,000

Income tax credit

$25,000,000

Classroom site funds

$364,182,557

Over $640 million per year

10%
11%

Classroom site funds

57%

3%
13%
1%
1%
4%

When we refer to Prop 301 monies that a district is using, what we are
referring to is officially called Classroom Site Funds

Most Prop 301 money goes

to the biggest districts
Almost half of Prop 301
monies are going to the
States 13 largest districts
Mesa is largest and gets
about $22 million
TUSD is second largest and
gets about $18 million

20% for TEACHER Base Pay Increases

40% for TEACHER Performance Pay

Another 40% that could go to TEACHERS

How do we know about TUSDs

spending of 301 monies?

http://www.tusd1.org/contents/depart/finance/afr.asp

Fiscal Year 2013

HT Sanchez began his tenure as TUSD Superintendent in 2013, and he has
his signature on all these Annual Financial reports filed with the state.

20% for
Base Salary

40% for
Performance
Pay

40% for
Other

Everything you need to know about 301 spending

is on the third page of the AFR.

The bottom lines

Beginning Fund Balance: $1.6 million
This is what was left over from the previous Pedicone administration
In 2013, TUSD gets $16.3 million in Prop 301 money
TUSD has about $18 million to spend, yet ends up with an ending balance
of $6.3 million in Prop 301 that it didnt spend.
Base pay amount spent was cut by 33.8%
Performance pay spent was cut by 54.6% (thats OVER HALF!)
In the end, TUSD spent 31.8% less overall in Prop 301 money than the
previous year
The ending balance for Performance Pay not paid out was $6.3 million.

2014 - Karla Soto is

now the CFO
Beginning Fund Balance: $6.3 million
Of the $3.7 million TUSD can spend on Base Salary, it spends
$2.8 million
Of the $13.6 million TUSD can spend on Performance Pay, it
spends $3.9 million (THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!)
TUSD also doesnt spend $1.0 million from the Other category
Ending balance $11.7 million

2015 - HT Sanchez and Karla

Soto cant blame Pedicone anymore
Beginning Fund Balance: $11.7 million
Of the $4.3 million TUSD can spend on Base Salary, it spends
$2.7 million
Of the $16.6 million TUSD can spend on Performance Pay, it
spends $3.9 million (THIS IS EVEN MORE OUTRAGEOUS!)
TUSD also doesnt spend $1.1 million from the Other category
Ending balance $15.4 million

Why, why, why?

Teachers are already struggling and star ving, so why
would TUSD deny them $15.4 million that it has and
that it can only spend on teachers anyways
Why is Hoarding HT doing this?
HT blamed Pedicone at first, but Pedicone only left
$1.6 million in reser ves, now this amount has
gone up nearly ten-fold!
It gets worse

By June 2016, this news is already out,

written about, talked about on the
radio
On July 2016 the TUSD school board gets
to vote on its budget for the current
year will they FINALLY give that money
to the teachers or will HTs Hoarding
disease spread?

From page 44 of Karla

Sotos Presentation
This coming up year, TUSD will get $18.5 million in Prop 301 money
TUSD will spend $14.2 million
So that is an extra $4.3 million that TUSD is NOT spending on
teachers!
On page 15, Soto shows this same number as carrying over.

http://www.tusd1.org/contents/govboard/packet07-12-16/7-12-16-BAI6-Presentation.pdf

The beginning balance for this year is

$15.4 million
The amount unspent will be $4.3 million
That is now $19.7 million in unspent
Prop 301 monies!

The con
Now consider the following
TUSD has more in Prop 301 reser ves than it gets in an entire
year in 301 monies!
Imagine if the Republicans running the ADE/legislature cut
TUSDs 301 money for one year there would be an uproar!
And yet, the equivalent thing is happening, since Hoarding
HT refuses to spend that money on teachers as the voters
intended
But he has no problem demanding a $499K Salary package
from TUSD

Why?
There are a few reasons why this could be happening; either way
it is wrong to not spend that money as teachers struggle so why
is this board approving such budgets?
One reason is that when the previous CFO left, he said that
TUSD was going broke. Yet Kristel Foster, who is running for
re-election this year, is saying TUSD is not going broke, but
that it has over $17 million in reser ves
She fails to mention that almost all of that is Prop 301
money that she fails to spend on teachers!
Not spending Prop 301 money makes it look like TUSD has
more money than it really has.

Why - part 2
The argument for Prop 123 which just passed is that the state was
withholding Prop 301 money and that TUSD simply NEEDED that extra
money
as if it had spent every last penny and was starving for anything,
crumbs even
And yet TUSD will now have nearly $20 million in unspent Prop 301
money?
Clearly Prop 123 was not to save TUSD from falling off a cliff, since
TUSD still has tons of money that it is not spending.
And of course, TUSD only spent 26% of Prop 123 on teachers while
districts such as Sunnyside spent 100% of its money on raises, but
thats a different topic for another day

Amount of unspent Prop 301 monies as a

percentage of the annual Prop 301 income
120%

2014

2015

2016

100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%

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-20%

These numbers should be as close to zero as possible, and yet look at TUSD,
which has more than an entire years worth of unspent Prop 301 money
just sitting there instead of going to the teachers

God's people are not to accumulate stuff for

tomorrow but to share indiscriminately with
the scandalous and holy confidence that God
will provide for tomorrow. Then we need not
stockpile stuff in barns or a 401(k),
especially when there is someone in need.
Shane Claiborne, Red Letter Revolution: What If
Jesus Really Meant What He Said?