I was wrong.
Stacie and I were both surprised to learn that, from the district’s perspective, my money no longer existed, that in fact it had never existed, not as I had understood it to exist anyway. As it was explained to us at that time, all of Christensen’s tax credit money was actually in a few large accounts at the district and always had been: a general account, a fieldtrips account, as well as a few others. There was no John Coe account. In fact, as I later came to learn, there never had been a John Coe account except in our secretary’s well-kept, but apparently unofficial, accounting ledger book.
Needless to say, I was rather disappointed to learn this, and to find that what I had thought of as my money was, in a very real sense, not. And worse, that it was, in fact, gone.
In the end, Christensen’s tax credit money was redistributed to schools around the district on a per-student basis, based on the number of Christensen students who were reassigned to each building. So Marshall got some of Christensen’s tax credit money, so did Thomas, and Cromer, and several others. Any school that got Christensen students last year got some of Christensen’s tax credit money.
As it turns out, at many schools in FUSD, including Marshall and Christensen, a misperception has been permitted to grow among faculty, chiefly due to the diligence and good intentions of our school secretaries. Until recently we have been encouraged to think about tax credit monies on an individual, or classroom basis. But this is not as it should be, nor is it what the law allows. By law [ARS 43-1089], tax credit contributions can be paid only to “a public school for support of extra curricular activities of for character education programs.” This money is paid into a central fund that is identified by-school and held in a distinct set of accounts at the district level. Tax credit contributions cannot be made to specific classrooms, or to classroom teachers, or even for specific fieldtrips or programs.
So, where does all this leave us?
Well, we have a ledger book. And based on its balance sheet, some of you who have worked hard for many years to solicit tax credit contributions from your parents, are quite rich. Others, such as those of you who were transferred from another school, are quite poor unless you raised tax credit funds last year that were earmarked in the ledger book for your class. Depending on who you are this is either the source of great comfort or a point of abiding frustration to you.
But remember: the accounting ledger is a fiction, a construct that only exists in our minds and on Malinda’s computer. Otherwise, it’s not real. As far as FUSD and the state of Arizona are concerned, we have just a handful of tax credit accounts, a general fund, a fieldtrips fund, an arts magnet fund, and a couple others that are nearly empty. There is no account at the district level with your name on it. Nor does the state tax credit law allow for such an account to ever be created.
The bottom line is this: it has always been the intent of the Arizona state legislature that Marshall’s tax credit monies belong to all of us, as a school community. And they do.
So then, equitably and legally, how do we realign ourselves to be compliant with the state’s intentions while honoring the plans that many of us have made to spend tax credit money this year?
That’s a tough one.
The best way I can come up with is to close the accounting ledger from this point forward and, from now on, apply any future tax credit receipts correctly. If we proceed this way, that would mean that the money you have on the ledger that’s identified for your classroom is still, technically, yours to expend. But it would also mean that, at the end of this school year, the ledger book would go away and all of Marshall’s tax credit monies would be correctly perceived as being in the funds at the district in which they already are actually and legally deposited.
In the long run this works out best for all of us, I think. As an Arts and Science magnet school, it makes little sense for us to not allow all of our students to benefit from the monies we have received. In order for our magnet programs to be vibrant and growing, year after year, every child at Marshall should have equal access to the benefits of our many unique extracurricular programs, not just those fortunate enough to be in certain classrooms.
Similarly, if we are to continue to become a uniquely more capable and appealing arts and science magnet school, we must all bear the burden of encouraging our families to make this simple, crucial annual contribution to our school. If we and our special magnet school programs are all to benefit from tax credit money, we should all participate in an ongoing campaign to encourage our families to give to our school and its programs.
So, here’s the bottom line: you’ve still got your money. You will still get to do what you want to do. But please remember, it’s not really your money. It never was. It’s Marshall’s money. And that’s all of us. And it always has been.
Please acknowledge:
