Tucson Standard

The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) heard a report from the district's bond consultant during its May 23 meeting on community support of a potential $480 million bond proposal for the fall election.

The study examined the support for the bond based on race, political affiliations, and gender, consultant Rick Sklarz of Javelina Consulting told the board.

"We gave the respondents the very sort of simple, straightforward 'yes or no' statement that would appear on the ballot as it would if this was election day and they were walking in and voting," he said. "And so they get the yes vote shall authorize Tucson Unified School District Governing Board to issue and sell $480 million of school improvement bonds of the district. A no vote is no to that."

Sclarz and David Metz went over information they had gathered since the January approval of the research contract. They found a 95% confidence rate in the outcome of the voter survey, gathered through phone, email, text, and online surveys in both Spanish and English. They said they targeted the voters of bond elections in the past.

The survey found that the top four concerns of voters were the shortage of qualified teachers, the amount of public education funding, inflation, and overall quality of education. The level of satisfaction with job performance in the district was poor, with most disapproving, the consultants said. Most demographics of gender, race, and parents/nonparents showed similar levels of disapproval. The main discrepancy was that conservatives were more dissatisfied than liberals. The study also found that approval for each school was higher in each area, with the loyalty for each neighborhood school was better than the entire district, and the local superintendent had a better approval rate than the state superintendent.

Sklarz said most respondents said the district needed more funding to improve school infrastructure and safety, with 76% of voters agreeing. However, 44% of voters were against raising taxes and 37% had confidence in the district’s fiscal responsibility. 

In addition, 63% of voters supported the $480 million in  school improvement bonds. There was also a partisan difference in the decision, with 80% of Democrats voting yes compared to 34% of Republicans. The overall approval rate however, went up after the district asked questions about potential projects that would be done with the bond money, many of which were school building improvements that were popular with voters.

The consultants said the district could be confident in its $480 million bond being approved if it is put it on the November ballot. “That being said, the public sector says yes, despite all these problems and perhaps because of these problems, the district needs additional resources, additional funding to improve the education and address important issues like school safety. As a result, we see in the survey a pretty strong initial support for this proposed bond measure," Sklarz said. 

The board will vote on whether to put the bond on the ballot at its June 13 meeting.