More Reaction to Tom Horne Recommending a Twenty Percent Budget Cut for Arizona’s Title One Schools

More reaction has emerged since the Blog for Arizona reported on Arizona Superintendent Tom Horne’s recommendation that Title One Schools may have to endure a twenty percent cut to their budgets for the 2024/25 school year while not doing anything to contain the growth of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, a private school voucher program that largely benefits the students of the wealthy and MAGA White Christian Nationalist Families who want to home school/indoctrinate their children.

Chandler Unified School District Governing Board Candidate Zeyna Pruzhanovsky commented:

“This is another devised method to undermine public education, which jeopardizes the most vulnerable of students, putting more pressure on educators at a time when they need the most support.”

Members of the Latino Legislative Caucus at the Arizona State Legislature issued a press release on April 4, 2024.

From the release:

“Chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus, Senator Anna Hernandez, stated, “Tom Horne has weaponized the Department of Education to steal from the poor and give to the rich. This decision to withhold funding from our most vulnerable students is unconscionable. Horne and alt-right conservative legislators consistently tout the falsehood that we are ‘under budget’ for the ESA program and have invested ‘historic levels of funding’ into public education. I am sick and tired of Republicans pretending to care about public education and the future of our students. For the over 90% of students that choose public schools, we owe them an appropriate education and this decision fails to ensure that our schools are set up for success. Our class sizes will grow, more teacher positions will be cut, and our students and families will feel the impacts of this neglect. I join educators and schools across Arizona in calling for an immediate investigation into this decision to cut funding from our Title I schools.”

“Superintendent Horne has overstepped his authority and is playing politics with the lives and futures
of students who need our help the most,” said Representative Lydia Hernandez, Latino Caucus Co-Chair. “I myself am a fiscal conservative and exercise my due diligence while making budget decisions on the dais, however, a 20% cut to Title I funds in the Cartwright District, where I served for 18 years as a Governing Board member, will be about $2 million, which would be devastating. Without this funding, we will lose the ability to conduct summer school, which will put students who need the most help even further behind.”

Representative Mariana Sandoval, Caucus Treasurer, added, “Withholding Title I funds to the schools
that are most in need and denying dual-language programs for our second-language learners, is orchestrated academic failure. When you deny dual-language programs to our English speakers you deny students from participating in global businesses. It’s self-defeating. In totality, this does nothing to serve Arizona students and their ability to thrive as global business leaders. This is a direct attack on the poor and monolingual-speaking students, period.”

“It is alarming, yet unsurprising that Superintendent Horne would choose to withhold taxpayer dollars
from our Title I public schools in Arizona,” said Representative Lorena Austin, Caucus Secretary. “He has a history of disenfranchising vulnerable communities, and this is another way to ensure that students do not receive an equitable, quality education in Arizona. Removing any amount of Title I funds from public schools is unacceptable
at a time when providing qualified educators and resources to our students should be of the highest priority.”