🏫 Tale of Two Institutions: Airport Independence vs. School District Constraints on the Buckmaster Show
Brian Kidd and Dr. Gabriel Trujillo reveal how governance structures determine whether public services thrive or merely survive
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 6/12/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, interviewing local newsmakers. Analysis and opinions are my own.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🗣️ Two important Tucson leaders appeared on a radio show to talk about their big challenges. ✈️ The airport guy explained how their independence lets them compete better and keep prices low compared to Phoenix.
🎓 The school superintendent described needing voter approval to give teachers decent raises and restore basic programs like PE and art classes that were cut years ago. 💼 The airport runs like a business and thrives, while the school district has to beg for money and cut budgets.
👪 A school community recently came together to help when immigration officers arrested a parent, showing how people can make a difference when they work together. 🤝 Both institutions need community support, but they operate under very different rules that affect their success.
🗝️ Takeaways
✈️ Airport Authority Advantage: TUS has operated independently since 1948, allowing business-like decisions without political interference
💸 Competitive Pricing: TUS parking costs $5-12 vs Phoenix's $16-33, demonstrating the authority model's efficiency benefits
📚 Teacher Pay Gap: TUSD averages $56K vs Flowing Wells' $65K, forcing override request for $3K raises
🎨 Restoration Package: Override would restore PE teachers, expand arts programs, and add social workers—basic services that should be adequately funded
👨👩👧👦 Community Solidarity: Myers-Ganing parents rallied successfully for an ICE-arrested parent, showing civic engagement power
📊 Demographic Reality: 40% of TUSD homeowners are 55+, creating enrollment decline through aging population, not academic failure
💰 Budget Discipline: TUSD cut $8.5M from administration while maintaining classroom resources
🏛️ Governance Matters: Structural independence enables TUS success while political oversight constrains TUSD effectiveness
Flying High While Schools Struggle: How Tucson's Airport Authority Model Puts TUSD's Funding Crisis in Sharp Relief
Bill Buckmaster's Thursday show delivered a tale of two institutions navigating vastly different realities in the same community. While Tucson International Airport soars with operational independence and strategic flexibility, Tucson Unified School District remains shackled by funding constraints and political pressures that would make any progressive wonder: Why does TUSD remain grounded while TUS is flying high?
The contrast couldn't be starker—or more illuminating for anyone paying attention to how governance structures determine institutional success.
The Airport Authority Advantage: Independence in Action
Brian Kidd, Deputy Chief of Strategic Marketing and Air Service Development at Tucson International Airport, opened the show with insights that should prompt every municipal government to take note. TUS operates as an independent authority, a forward-thinking structure established in 1948 that now provides competitive advantages other airports desperately envy.
"It really is a better operating model," Kidd explained, describing how authority status allows "independent ability to make decisions without having to worry about city or county or state issues" and enables them to "run more like a business than we would otherwise."
Imagine that—a public institution that actually operates efficiently because it's not bogged down by political theater and bureaucratic red tape. Revolutionary concept, right?
The aviation industry's hypercompetitive landscape demands this agility. Airlines no longer commit to routes and wait a year for performance evaluation. "They're looking pretty much right off the bat," Kidd noted, explaining that carriers maintain "another 10 things they could do with that aircraft. And if this one doesn't perform, it's on to the next."
This ruthless efficiency forces airports to compete not just on amenities but on fundamental operational costs. TUS leverages its authority structure to keep airline expenses low while maintaining service quality—a delicate balance that municipal airports struggle to achieve when political considerations override business logic.
The parking comparison with Phoenix Sky Harbor illustrates this competitive advantage perfectly. TUS charges $5 for uncovered parking versus Phoenix's $16, and $12 for covered spots compared to Phoenix's $33. "It makes a difference, and we just want people to take that into account when they're calculating the total cost of the trip," Kidd emphasized.
Education Under Siege: TUSD's Carefully Curated Radio Performance
Dr. Gabriel Trujillo's segment painted a carefully managed picture of "institutional constraints" that conveniently omitted the damning realities exposed just two days earlier at the June 10th board meeting.
While Trujillo spoke eloquently about demographic challenges and competitive teacher salaries, he somehow overlooked the fact that 517 students can't access federally mandated occupational therapy services, despite the district approving $40,000 in secret settlements.
Funny how radio interviews become so much easier when you simply don't mention the part where your district is systematically failing hundreds of disabled children.
The district's upcoming override request assumes a more sinister dimension when viewed in light of recent revelations. TUSD teacher salaries average $56,000, while those in neighboring Flowing Wells reach $65,000. "Listen, we're being outgunned by Flowing Wells," Trujillo admitted with characteristic selective honesty. "It's hard to compete."
However, here's what he didn't mention: TUSD employs only 7 occupational therapists to serve 860 students requiring services, with 6.4 vacant positions that the district has failed to fill. Community advocate Lillian Fox revealed that kindergarten classes pack 26 students each, compared to South Carolina's 16-22 with teacher aides.
South Carolina. Let that marinate. A state not exactly known for progressive education policies somehow provides better learning conditions than supposedly forward-thinking Tucson.
The override package would provide "$3,000 raises for the life of the override" for teachers while the district continues denying basic services to disabled students.
Trujillo described "a restoration package of things that quite frankly should be funded adequately"—but failed to explain why settlement money flows freely while occupational therapy positions remain vacant.
Because nothing says "fiscal responsibility" like paying lawyers while children with disabilities go without federally required services.
The Immigration Reality Check: Selective Transparency
Trujillo's description of the Myers-Ganoung Elementary incident revealed his skill at narrative management—highlighting community solidarity while omitting systemic dysfunction. When ICE arrested a parent walking her daughter to summer school, "the Myers-Ganoung teachers and employees and the fellow parents of the school rallied around this parent and demanded her release."
The parent's successful release after 48 hours became a feel-good story about community power. "They weren't seeing documented or undocumented, they were seeing a mother and they were seeing their friend, they were seeing their neighbor," Trujillo observed with apparent pride.
"It's not black or white... They're deeply rooted in American society," Trujillo emphasized about immigrant families, demonstrating admirable humanity toward documented status questions while showing less concern for the documented reality that his district systematically denies services to children with disabilities.
Budget Cuts and Institutional Priorities: The Settlement vs. Services Reality
Both institutions demonstrate fiscal choices within their constraints, but those choices reveal dramatically different values. TUS operates under airline oversight for capital improvements—a system that keeps costs controlled while maintaining competitive positioning.
TUSD just cut $8.5 million from administrative functions while simultaneously approving a $40,000 confidential settlement connected to former Pueblo High Principal Auggie Romero's corruption, whose contract was not renewed after admitting he changed grades to boost graduation numbers—a violation of state law. Romero claimed it was because he was Yaqui.
"When we're in a time where we have to cut the budget, we cut as far away from the classroom as possible," Trujillo explained, emphasizing that "none of our budget cuts touched the schools in terms of taking resources out of schools or classrooms."
Except for the part where 517 children can't access occupational therapy because the district won't fill vacant positions. But sure, let's call legal settlements "far from the classroom."
The federal funding uncertainty adds another manufactured crisis. TUSD receives $43 million in Title funds, but "depending on the fate of this massive legislation that's before the Senate right now... we could be looking at some pretty devastating cuts in federal funding."
Meanwhile, the district eliminated $4 million in desegregation programs serving vulnerable families while finding money for settlements and administrative protection. Only board member Sadie Shaw voted against the secret payment, while others normalized what community advocates called "institutional violence."
Because nothing says "students first" like cutting family engagement programs while paying legal bills for past corruption.
Demographic Challenges and Manufactured Complexity
Trujillo confronted enrollment decline with carefully selected statistics that obscure institutional failures. "40% of homeowners inside of TUSD boundaries, they're 55 or over, especially on the east side. So you're, it's not that you're losing kids, you just don't have enough kids coming behind them."
This demographic explanation conveniently overlooks the fact that families might actively avoid a district where kindergarten classes have 26 students compared to other states' classes of 16-22 students with teacher aides. The B-rating from the Arizona Department of Education may sound impressive until you realize the district systematically conceals basic staffing information from its own elected board and continues to operate with an interim principal at its largest high school, which has a majority-minority student population.
Maybe we need that Deseg Order back on TUSD?
"Myers-Ganoung takes everybody that walks in the door and students with disabilities, refugee students, students coming from poverty, and they're able to grow those kids," Trujillo emphasized, contrasting comprehensive public education with selective charter alternatives.
It's touching how he celebrates serving "everybody that walks in the door" while simultaneously denying federally mandated services to 517 of those children. Growth apparently doesn't include accessing occupational therapy.
The staffing crisis extends beyond special education. Fox's testimony revealed that "the staffing formula for monitors is one monitor per 600 kids" creating conditions where "we have such horrific problems with bullying." However, Trujillo somehow overlooked mentioning these details during his radio appearance.
The Governance Gap: Authority vs. Accountability Theater
The fundamental contrast between TUS and TUSD operations extends beyond governance structures—it reveals how institutional transparency enables or hinders public accountability. Airports benefit from having authority status, which provides operational flexibility while maintaining clear performance metrics. School districts navigate political oversight that is often more focused on democratic theater than effective governance.
Recent TUSD board meetings expose how "democratic oversight" actually shields administrators from accountability. As community advocate Lillian Fox documented, "You only have two responsibilities as a board. One is to oversee the hiring and firing of employees. The other one is to oversee the spending of TUSD's money. You're being cut out of them."
The board systematically excludes community input through buried hearings and summer scheduling while concealing basic staffing information from elected officials. Former insider Sylvia Campoy contrasted current dysfunction with institutional memory: "With 20,000 fewer students today... Red tape did not strangle teachers, speech therapists, or parents [in the past]."
We've created a system where airports operate transparently while school districts operate through deliberate concealment. Then we wonder why one serves its community while the other serves its administrators.
This disparity affects every resident who relies on both institutions, but the impacts differ dramatically. TUS's competitive advantages benefit travelers whose economic activity supports regional prosperity. TUSD's systematic service denial affects children with disabilities whose needs create no political constituency with economic leverage.
A Path Forward: Beyond Institutional Theater
Despite systemic dysfunction, both guests demonstrated leadership qualities—though Trujillo's carefully curated radio performance raises questions about transparency versus public relations management.
Kidd's strategic patience with airline relationships reflects genuine constraint navigation, whereas Trujillo's selective disclosure suggests a greater concern with image management than with institutional accountability.
The Myers-Ganoung community response offers genuine hope—proof that organized citizens can protect vulnerable neighbors when they have complete information. This same civic engagement could demand TUSD transparency about service delivery failures while supporting airport authority models for other municipal services.
Real change happens when communities demand accountability, not just better marketing of institutional failure.
Progress requires recognizing that governance structures enable either transparency or concealment. TUS succeeds partly because authority status creates clear performance metrics and stakeholder accountability. TUSD fails partly because democratic oversight has been perverted into accountability theater that protects administrators while abandoning students.
The path ahead demands supporting institutions that actually serve community needs while exposing those that prioritize self-preservation over public service. Our airports shouldn't be the only public institutions required to operate efficiently.
Community members can take immediate action:
Demand Service Delivery: Pressure TUSD to fill vacant occupational therapy positions immediately rather than accepting years-long waitlists as inevitable
Expose Budget Priorities: Question why settlement money flows freely while special education services remain understaffed
Restore Democratic Participation: Require meaningful community input on all major decisions instead of performative public comment periods
Support Transparency Advocates: Amplify voices like Lillian Fox, Sylvia Campoy, and Sadie Shaw who expose institutional concealment
Your tax dollars fund both institutions—demand better from the one that's systematically failing your children.
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What Do You Think?
How might other municipal services benefit from authority-style independence similar to TUS's successful model? Should school districts have more operational autonomy, or do democratic oversight mechanisms serve essential purposes that business-style governance would undermine?
What role should community organizing play in supporting both educational funding and humane immigration policies? How can we build on the Myers-Ganoung example to create broader civic engagement?
Share your thoughts below—especially if you have experience with school funding campaigns or insights into how governance structures affect public service delivery in your community.
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