Maricopa County voters will decide if community colleges can access more funds during the November 5th election.
With the national election on the horizon and the pick for the future president on everyone’s minds, Maricopa residents will have another choice while at the ballots this November. Proposition 486 seeks to allow community colleges in Maricopa County to utilize more funds for educating students and expanding school programs. The proposition was originally added as a ballot measure in Spring 2024 and is now up to the regular voters of the county to determine if the proposition will be approved or not. This will have substantial effects on the future of education for those seeking to go to community college as opposed to private universities.
Proposition 486 seeks to change an expenditure limit that currently restricts the amount of their allotted budgets Maricopa Community Colleges can spend. The limit comes from Arizona Constitution Article IX, §21, which was voted in favor of in 1980 to set a financial limit to how much community colleges can spend. The limit also includes penalties for community colleges that exceed the expenditure limit based on the percentage of the excess budget spent.
The expenditure limit is calculated based on expenses that were made in the 1979-1980 academic year multiplied by a full-time student equivalency factor(FTSE) and an inflation factor. What Prop 486 seeks to change is the base factor that was set 44 years ago. The budget allotted to community colleges has increased since then, but they are unable to access that money without incurring penalties.
Susan Bitter Smith, secretary on the Maricopa Community College District Governing Board said in a luncheon on September 10: “Our problem is that without having the ability to spend the dollars to service the number of students we have in their programs and to provide the infrastructure – which includes things like computers, AI, technology, equipment, those things we have no dollars to spend on – and without the expenditure limit being raised, we will be in trouble.”
The Maricopa Community Colleges Faculty Association argues that the base limit does not account for advances in technology, the needs of high school students advancing to community college, and other programs that have developed since the 1980s. They also argue that most students are now in school part part-time (8.1 hours) rather than full-time but have much of the same needs as full-time students.
Hi Eric, thanks for writing this article about Proposition 486. I’ll be honest, before reading this, I was completely unaware that this was something that would even be on the ballot this November. You explained the situation in an exceptional way that provides the facts and informs the reader to make their own decision. Proposition 486 appears to be very important and is a great subject piece because it effects all of the readers of this website. The education system has some flaws, and the way money is allocated and spread around across different schools has always seemed unfair. Ever since I was in elementary school, I can recall countless moments of teachers saying they did not have the budget to do what they want to do, and that still rings true today. The fact that we are still using the base limit from 44 years ago as a limit is crazy to me, and it seems like something that should be fixed immediately. Education is such an important part of our culture, and community colleges especially deserve to have higher budgets as they are extremely important in giving many people the opportunity to get a higher education. When I vote this November, I will definitely keep an eye out for Proposition 486 on the ballot.
Hello Eric, and thank you for providing information on Prop 486. I never knew that this was going to be on the ballot for this year’s election, and the reason why is that I haven’t been watching the news lately. But you provided important information about this proposition in such a way that I feel that anybody can read it and understand what is going on. My parents both work in the educational system, and I think that if this proposition comes to pass in the election this year. It can mean a lot of financial issues for both of them and other schools across the state. There have been a lot of issues when it comes to money for schools in the state of Arizona, and I feel things are only going to get worse if something is not done about this proposition. Education is our way of teaching the next generation the things that they need to learn for their everyday lives, and not only K-12 schools, but community colleges and universities should get budget raises because it can give so many people opportunities for careers and to advance their education to the next level.