As you can see from the countdown clock on our homepage, the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) has to be waived this week or our public school children will be punished with a senseless and draconian cut of over a billion dollars.
Civic Engagement Beyond Voting is on the case in this week’s legislative update:
The House did its part on Tuesday to waive the school spending cap (AEL), an outdated 1980 formula which governs how much K-12 schools are allowed to spend. Now it’s up to the Senate — but lawmakers there are dragging their feet. Meanwhile, districts statewide are drawing up contingency plans for the worst-case scenario. (Cartwright District, for example, would have to end school two months early.) Business groups and chambers of commerce are urging swift action. But, frustratingly, Senate president Karen Fann has moved the goalposts. She now says she wants support from a majority of her caucus, not just 20 votes. This means finding 3 more Republican votes, not just 1.
Public schools are vital to our state’s economy; they’re the largest employer in some rural areas. Families depend on them. Keeping schools open should transcend partisan rancor. Contact your state senator; urge them to advance a clean bill to waive the cap so Arizona’s public schools aren’t hit with $1.2 billion in cuts this school year. Do this regardless of your senator’s party or public posture: friendly senators need to know we have their backs, and unsympathetic ones need to hear a roar of support for public schools.
The current holdouts are reported to be Sonny Borrelli (R-5), David Gowan (R-14), Rick Gray (R-21), Sine Kerr (R-13), Vince Leach (R-11 and ALEC.org), David Livingston (R-22), JD Mesnard (R-17), Warren Petersen (R-12), Wendy Rogers (R-6), Kelly Townsend (R-16), and Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-23). Some of these are reportedly telling constituents that “they can’t do anything because the bills aren’t assigned to a committee.” To be quite frank, this is BS. It takes a two-thirds supermajority vote to bring bills directly to the floor for a final vote, and that’s the same number needed to pass the bill. The ball’s in their court; make sure they know you know that.
We are down to the wire.
Contact Senate President Fann to change her mind once again about requiring a majority of her caucus (which is especially galling since she’s retiring and doesn’t face re-election by her caucus to the Senate presidency, and will instead be heading up the Koch-owned ALEC.org), and the radical AZGOP Senators above who are holding our children hostage to their extreme anti-education ideology.
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Funny that Johnny the Blog Jester can’t tell the political difference between a hostage held at gunpoint and the depiction of a political assassination, nor discern any difference in intent between the two messages. All he sees is the presence of a gun and thinks that makes them equivalent. I suppose that lack of moral imagination is also why he thinks it OK to point a whipped up mob of racists at a harmless group of women and children refugees: https://blogforarizona.net/worst-person-in-arizona-az-rep-john-kavanagh-tries-to-whip-up-scottsdale-bigots-against-afghan-refugees/
Hey Johnny Boy! Instead of bloviating about imaginary hypocrisy, how about shooting your keyboard’s mouth off about HB 2448, allowing NRA mascot Eddie Eagle teach gun safety to school children?:
“Republican Rep. John Kavanagh claimed he couldn’t think of any parent “in their right mind” who wouldn’t want their child in the program. He went on to say he would “forward the name and address of the parent to child protective services if they opted out of this.”
If you’re thinking, “Huh, wait a minute. That name sounds familiar. Isn’t that the guy pushing a parental consent bill that would require minors to get consent from their parents in order to join an LGBTQ+ club at school?”
Why yes, that is the same guy. Isn’t it funny how students need to risk outing themselves (or their peers) to parents in order to join an identity-based, optional, extracurricular club, but when it comes to mandated class, parents should be reported to CPS if they don’t want their child attending a lesson? Huh. Interesting how that hypocrisy works.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, the bill passed and now heads to the House for a vote.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/2/15/2080511/-Guess-who-Republicans-want-responsible-for-teaching-gun-safety-in-public-schools
Representative John Kavanagh (R-Stasi). You’ve worked hard for that label, be sure to wear it proudly.
So one BfA posting attacks Republican Senate candidate Jim Lamon’s ad in which he has a fake gunfight with Pelosi calling it cringeworthy and your post has someone holding a gun to a 6 year olds head. Talk about hypocrisy. Clearly, around here the end justifies the means.
John Kavanagh claims to support the US Constitution but then says, out loud where other people can hear him because he’s not super duper smart, that not everyone should be allowed to vote.
Only the people that agree with John Kavanagh should be allowed near a ballot, according to John Kavanagh.
And John Kavanagh supports changes to laws making it harder for Americans to vote.
Those same Americans who have been sending him checks his entire life, because he’s always on the government payroll somewhere.
Talk about hypocrisy.
Please donate to RAICESTEXAS dot org. RAICES provides free or low cost legal assistance to immigrants.
Please donate In Honor of Arizona State Rep John “Wow Is This Guy a Racist POS” Kavanagh.
Because John Kavanagh is a messy bitch who loves drama.
And yes, the more I mention John Kavanagh, the more I train the algorithm to direct people to RAICES when they search on his name.