Can Federal Lands Save Schools? School Board member advocates state takeover

Shirley Dye, Payson Unified School District board member, thinks as Governor Doug Ducey does — the Arizona State Land Trust should pay for schools and she would like the school board to support her position. But Dye has taken it a step further; she actively advocates the state take over the federal government lands in Arizona and put them to use for schools. “ASBA (the Arizona School Boards Association) allowed us to give a presentation on the difference between the state trust lands and the federal lands (and) how both lands are being less productive because of federal regulations,” she said. Dye, like many others, believe the Environmental Protection Agency and Forest Service regulations on coal-fired energy plant emissions, mining land rehabilitation requirements, lumber harvesting and grazing limits have limited the ability of private businesses to make money off of the land. “It is all these environmental issues causing the problems,” she said. Dye believes if mines, lumber companies and ranchers start making money and paying taxes, the state budget would have enough to fully fund the schools. Currently, Arizona ranks near-last on per-student spending on schools. Dye has adopted the recommendations of The Property and Environmental Research Center report entitled “Divided Lands: State vs. Federal Management in the West.” The report took revenue and expenditure data provided by the state land trusts from Arizona, New Mexico, Montana and Idaho and compared that to federal land management numbers. The report suggests that state land trusts produce an average of $14.51 for every dollar spent on land management. In comparison, the report found that the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management only generates 73 cents for every dollar spent on land management. The PERC report came to the conclusion that the poor rate of return on federal lands stems from poor land stewardship, restrictions on using natural resources coupled with limited access...more