Teachers Caucus in the State Legislature Offers a Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children

It is time to stop shortchanging the Children of Arizona. 

It is time they were able to attend full-day kindergarten no matter what zip code they live in. 

It is time they were no longer crammed into larger classrooms. 

It is time they all had highly qualified and well-paid teachers in every class.

It is time they all went to schools that had adequate counseling and mental health specialists to help guide them. 

It is time they all attended fully funded schools that did not have to worry about archaic expenditure limits that cut off revenues in the middle of the year. 

Members of the Arizona State Legislature, dubbed “The Teachers Caucus” have devised a plan that will address the immediate investment needs for Arizona’s Children. 

Please click here to read the plan. https://www.mobilize.us/ld2democrats/event/505992/

Called The Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children, this policy proposal, composed by Representative Mitzi Epstein, Senator Christine Marsh, Representative Jennifer Pawlik, and Representative Judy Schwiebert, would:

• Lift the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) so schools would not have to worry about funds being cut off in mid-year.
• Fund smaller class sizes.
• Increase pay for teachers.
• Fully fund full-day kindergarten as well as Grades 1-12 operations.
• Invest in counseling and mental health personnel. 
• Provide for school construction and renovation needs.

Representatives Epstein, Pawlik, and Schwiebert graciously took the time to discuss the Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children. 

The questions and their responses are below. 

• Please tell the readers what is the Plan to Invest in Arizona’s children.  

State Representative Schwiebert: “The Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children is a roadmap to what needs to happen to ensure that every student in Arizona gets the great education that they deserve. For the longest time education has been a bipartisan issue, and it should continue to be. We were eager to lay out some of the things that we are hearing from our stakeholders, from superintendents, teachers, parents, business leaders, and others about what they really see as the priorities for what needs to happen. So, there are five points to our plan.”

State Representative Epstein: “I’ll jump in because I get to address my favorite thing, which is education funding. You’ll see that the five points start and end with the funding because teaching is all about people helping kids learn. People need to be paid for their work. And so, the first one is all about lifting that cap (the Aggregate Expenditure Limit). The final one is to stop draining money away from public schools with the voucher expansion. Everything else, all the other priorities hinges on the funding because all the other solutions are about having great teachers do their work and they need to be paid.”

State Representative Pawlik: “ We want to address the teacher shortage. And really, it is a shortage. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association report that was published last week, I recommend you read it. For the past two or three years, we’ve been short about 2000 teachers each school year. This year, there were over 9,500 openings, and over 4,000 of those positions are now filled by unqualified people. We also want to make sure that kids have a strong foundation by making sure that they have access to full-day kindergarten, whether or not they’re in a district that can afford to pay for that. It is critical that we are addressing the mental health of our students right now. Rep. Epstein and I are in a part of the Valley where we have serious issues with teen suicide. So that’s particularly important.”

Is there anything anyone would like to add before going to the next question? 

State Representative Schwiebert: “To address the teacher shortage, as both my colleagues pointed out, we need to increase salaries because we know that teachers can no longer afford to teach In Arizona. We have 56,000 people with valid teaching certificates who are not in the classroom because they have found other work that pays better or perhaps where they aren’t so micromanaged. Also, it’s not just teachers who need better pay, but all school staff. I spoke at a door the other day with the husband of a woman who’s been a special ed aid in their local school for 22 years, and she’s making $14 an hour.”

State Representative Epstein: “We put the plan together because it’s a comprehensive plan. This idea that we just do something about teacher pay, that’s what the inexperienced Republican candidates are offering and saying. Oh, Increased teacher pay by this much, which, yes, we need to do that, but that’s by no means going to address the needs of students. We’ve seen that movie before where they say, oh, money for teachers, but completely ignore everything else that schools need to pay for. That’s how we ended up with the low-pay teachers now.  Teachers are at eight and a half percent less pay than what they were making 10 years ago. So, you know, it’s quite the irony of ironies that Governor Ducey offered this 20% increase by the year 2020.  Well by 2020, teachers were eight and a half percent less than they were 10 years before that, and that was mostly during his administration. So, this is a comprehensive solution that takes a look at, “What do our schools need overall?”

• Please tell the readers at least two reasons this plan was necessary to develop. 

State Representative Pawlik: “Well, one thing that I think is really important to address is for years, Democrats have offered fantastic bills, and they have not been given a hearing. We wanted to highlight the fact that Democrats do bring great bills to the table.”

State Representative Schwiebert: “Democrats bring great ideas to the table because we’re listening to the people who are working in the field. We’re listening to stakeholders. As I said at the beginning, we’re listening to superintendents and school board members. We’re listening to teachers, students, and parents, and I don’t understand why everybody who is supposed to be representing their community is not doing that very same thing. I challenge them to do so.”

• What are the major features of the Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children?

State Representative Schwiebert: “I think the only other points in our plan that we didn’t talk about earlier are 1)  reducing class sizes, and 2) making sure that we are investing in the capital improvements that the state has long promised our schools, but have not delivered on. That’s why there’s a $4.56 billion lawsuit right now against the state by the Arizona School Board Association, Arizona Superintendents Association, several school districts, a parent, and others. 

On the class size issue, were there specific numbers in mind for certain grade levels?”

State Representative Epstein: “When I was on the school board in Kyrene, we had goals at one point to try to keep our class sizes under certain ranges and they were set at about 18 to 22 students per class from kindergarten to third grade. When you can keep a class size under 22, it can make a big difference. I was always told as a person who listens to real teachers, — and I’m sure Representative Pawlik and Schwiebert could testify to it   — that you could use data to find recommended class size ranges. I think the really important area for the investment is in those youngest grades.  But we must also not completely neglect our high schools because 45 kids in a physics class are about 15 too many in a physics class.”

Is this exclusively an education plan or is it open to other areas that deal with helping children?

State Representative Schwiebert: “This is exclusively an education plan for right now. There are other issues that are also very important, especially in particular regarding healthcare for vulnerable children and families, but this plan addresses just the education issues.”

Is there any additional information you would like to add on funding full-time Pre-K as well as full-day Kindergarten?

State Representative Pawlik: “As we are looking at the plan, we have to start somewhere, and we really need to start by ensuring that all Arizona kids have access to full-day kindergarten. If we could get that in place first, then we can work on preschool.”

State Representative Epstein: “I think that emphasis was there because too often in this state we see the more affluent areas get the next big thing before the less affluent get basics and so we want to see basic full-day kindergarten across the board for every Arizona child. Then we also need to work on Universal Pre-K. The other thing is Universal Pre-K has a pretty good price tag.  It has a great return on investment, but it’s quite the investment up front.”

• Please explain at least two ways you’ll campaign on this plan to persuade Democrats, Independents, and Disaffected Republicans to support your Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children.

State Representative Epstein: “I was at a campaign forum and we got the education question of, well “What are you going to do about education?” And I was thrilled to point to this plan that we have come up with together. I referred to the teacher caucus coming up with it and I think that at every opportunity I will bring it up again because I love that it is a comprehensive plan that would work as opposed to just glitter and glitz. There are actual, good quality education fundamentals here.”

State Representative Schwiebert: “I will just add that every time I am at a forum or a legislative district meeting or other events, like house parties, it’s really good to be able to point to a concrete plan to help children. We’re not just complaining about the way it is, but we’re saying, here’s what we’re going to do to fix it. I think that’s a really important piece. It shows leadership and shows that we’re being proactive with solutions. There’s a link to the plan on many of our websites, our social media pages, and everywhere else we can share it. 

State Representative Pawlik: “I would second that. When we’re having conversations at doors, and whenever we’re getting a chance to talk to people, it’s important to let them know what we’re doing.”

State Representative Epstein: “There’s a really strong feeling about more teacher pay out there. When we talk to parents, they talk to us about needing smaller class sizes. When we let people know, as we mentioned earlier, about the shortage of qualified teachers. It is appalling. When we got that report this year. It was just astonishing that only about one out of every three teachers is fully qualified to teach. So, one out of every three kids in Arizona classes actually has a teacher teaching. Otherwise, it’s somebody doing their best or nobody at all. When I’m starting to tell people about that, that’s of great concern.

State Representative Schwiebert: “Our public schools are doing a great job with one and sometimes two hands tied behind their backs because of the lack of funding. Every year they produce National Merit finalists, send students to Ivy League and top-rated universities, and prepare students for trade, technology, and other careers we need in our community. But because o the legislature’s failure to invest properly, too many of our students are being left out.” 

• Is there anything not covered in the previous questions that you would like the readers to know about your Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children?

State Representative Epstein: “Just one more thing is that I would encourage all your readers to go to the link and please sign onto it. Please help us spread the word about it. So, if you’ll ask your readers to please spread the word. Read it, sign onto it. That will help us. Help everybody to know that there is a plan and Democrats have the plan for this.” 

State Representative Pawlik: “I would ask your readers to vote because if we remain in the minority, we will not see this plan move forward. We need people to vote. It’s absolutely critical this year.”  

State Representative Schwiebert: “I guess I would just add that this Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children does not have to be restricted to just Democrats. We invite people of all parties and no party to sign onto this and to encourage their legislators of any party to sign onto it as well.  We deliberately didn’t call it the Democratic Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children.”

Representative Schwiebert is right. 

Investing in Arizona’s children should not be a partisan issue. All political candidates regardless of political affiliation should want to invest in small classrooms, pay teachers what they are worth, fully fund full-day kindergarten, repeal the Aggregate Expenditure Limit, ensure all schools have adequate counseling and mental health professionals to guide all children and have students learn in buildings that meet Twenty-First Century school standards. 

Representative Epstein is also right when she pointed out after the interview that:

“Families should not believe the false narratives that public schools are failing.  Public schools can achieve greatness, but they need funding.  The fringe and plutocratic right spread untrue negativity about public schools to justify giving their rich patrons special favors like voucher empowerment scholarships.  With vouchers, middle and working-class families are paying a bonus to high-income families who already send their children to expensive private schools.”

Finally, readers should listen to Representative Pawlik.

Readers need to vote. 

If they do not, there will not be any Plan to Invest in Arizona’s Children at the State Capitol next year. 

There will also be no major efforts to protect Democracy or women’s reproductive freedom if people do not stand up and be counted at the ballot box. 

November 8, 2022, is in 41 days. 

Vote and help start a new positive beginning for Arizona and the Grand Canyon state’s children.    

Please click here to read the plan and sign up to become involved in this worthy endeavor to help Arizona’s children.