Vote NO on Unification

What does unification do to my taxes?

The Arizona State Department of Education School Finance department has estimated that the school district portion of the property tax rate would increase by 8.7% for tax payers in Litchfield Elementary.

Review the report yourself-

Memo from Department of Education
School Finance department

The state redistrictricting commission says that they believe that school districts should implement a balanced salary schedule for all teachers. It will cost 40 million dollars statewide. Where will the state get these funds? The legislature has no plans to provide an additional 40 million dollars to schools to equalize salary schedules. The only way the new district can balance salaries is to cut the salary of some teachers or cut programs and services. The state is going to have another fiasco on their hands. Remember the costs of the Alternative Fuels legislation.

Many studies have shown that this type of unification does not result in cost savings and most likely will result in the increase in costs for districts.

Goldwater Institute Study

"A closer examination of the OAG report suggests statewide school district consolidation is unlikely to produce the hoped-for fiscal savings. Moreover, empirical research shows consolidation increases administrative
costs at the expense of classroom instruction, yielding larger classes, fewer teachers, and lower student achievement. Therefore, consolidation is a marginal reform, best implemented on a limited, case-by-case basis."

Center for Policy Research
The Maxwell School
Syracuse University

This study is frequently sited by the state redistricting commission as a reason to unify. Though this makes sense for districts with less than 500-6500 students, the study shows that above these levels it will actually increase costs due to areas such as transportation.

Summary of findings-

Per pupil costs continue to drop until you reach a district size of 6,500 students.
Costs continue to rise slowly until you reach a district size of 50,000 students.
Above 50,000 students costs climb dramatically and can become more expensive than districts that have less than 50 students.

Other Research

Remember to Vote YES on the School Overrides. This will not raise taxes. For more information, visit www.continuethequality.org