Here we go again.
For the third year in a row, MAGA Republican Legislators at the Arizona State Capitol, the individuals who have mostly not met a private school ESA voucher expenses they did not approve of, appear to be dragging their feet on fixing the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL,) the mechanism that, if not waived, could cut off funding to public schools in the middle of a school year.
This fix is one that has bipartisan support. When first returning to the office of Superintendent of Public instruction, Tom Horne called for fixing this antiquated measure.
Now, in the current drama that is negotiations for the fiscal 2025 budget, the subject of fixing the AEL has surfaced again.
State Democratic Senate Leader Mitzi Epstein would like the budget to finally secure a permanent fix to the AEL so this situation does not pop up during spring break of a school year ever ever again.
In a Senate press statement released Friday, Leader Epstein wrote:
“Last year, Democrats put together a one-time increase of $300 million for K-12 education in the FY 2024 budget to account for growth and actual inflation. It was above the formula because the formula in law only requires that K12 funding be increased for growth and up to 2% inflation. Over the years, that 2% limit has caused education purchasing power to drop badly. It means teachers’ pay is effectively less, and each student gets less.”
“This year, because of decades of Republican revenue mismanagement, that will not be a possibility. The Republican majority is not making funding for our children a priority. Not only have they proposed cuts to education funding, but they have also not committed
to fix the AEL.”
“The AEL – Aggregate Expenditure Limit – must be adjusted to meet the actual needs of students each year, to allow school districts to spend the money that is in the budget for them. If the legislature fails to do this accounting task, then schools cannot spend the money that has been approved by the legislature. By not committing to lift the AEL, Republicans are destabilizing Arizona’s public schools.”
“It is unconscionable that the Republican majority believes it appropriate to play games with public school money. They have already swung open the gates to untold amounts of fraud, waste, and abuse within their universal voucher expansion, and now in a year where we are trying to claw our state out of deficit, they have chosen to waste time on playing chicken with the AEL, and not allowing schools to spend the money they legally have in their budgets. This is not the time for games. While Republicans are proposing cuts to education, Democrats are fighting for our kids!”
Senator Epstein is right.
Children should not be shortchanged in their education or other basic needs.
Republicans need to stop playing with the AEL and using it as a negotiating tool to get what they want for their friends in the affluent one percent and home school community that are bilking the system for private school expenditures that it many cases go toward religious-political indoctrination and expenses that strain credibility.
The time to do what is right is now.
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