The road to more education funding is not over yet

One Somerton teacher and Arizona Educators United organizer is working to get the word out about the Invest in Education ballot initiative.

The Invest in Education initiative broke down what exactly their initiative is all about.

“This will put close to $700 million into Arizona classrooms,” said David Lujan, Invest in Education treasurer.

The projection comes from the Arizona department of revenue.

60 percent of that money would go towards teacher salaries and other related expenses. 40 percent would go towards expenses associated with classroom size reduction and funding support staff salaries, according to the Invest in Education website.

The initiative also would not allow the Arizona legislature to touch the fund.

“(It) will go into a classroom site fund and Arizona school boards will be able to use the money more than that for teacher raises and class sizes.” said Lujan.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce does not support the initiative because they said it is not sustainable and will effect small businesses.

“It’s a hit to small businesses. These tax brackets being targeted are the most volatile of all tax brackets That means we’re pitching teacher salary to very unpredictable. When tax revenues go down in a recession teacher pay is going to begin to as well.” said Garrick Taylor, Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

Invest in Education said that is not entirely true.

“When they talk about the impact of small businesses. The average income of a small business in the state of Arizona is $48,00. This income tax increase, as you mention begins at $250,000. Most small businesses won’t come anywhere near being impacted,” said Lujan. “(The economy) will go up and down , just like it does for everything else, but the thing is, it will provide a very good chunk of money that will be very stable that we can rely on every year for our schools.”

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce said they support teachers but think there is a better way to fund education. They are prepared to fight the initiative if it makes the ballot.

“We have committee that’s established that would be an opposition committee.” said Taylor.

Although the Arizona Chamber of Commerce is ready to take action against the initiative, Arredondo is confident in the power of the initiative.

I’m pretty confident that it will get on the ballot. We had thousands and teacher and supporters from across the state and I know it will get on there, get those votes.”

If you want more information on the ballot initiative, click here.