“The Clock is (Still) Ticking” on Arizona Public School Funding After Another Week of Inaction at the State Senate

While the Arizona State House has passed a measure lifting the State Expenditure Cap on Education spending, the Senate has failed to follow them and everyone has departed for the President’s Day Holiday Weekend.

When they return to the state capitol on Tuesday, there will only be seven calendar days for the Senate Republicans to act and pass the legislation that will enable Arizona Public Schools to continue fully funded operations for the remainder of the 2021/22 school year.

While all Democrats in that chamber (including LD-26’s Juan Mendez who came back from paternity leave to vote on lifting the cap) were ready to vote for the measure, Republicans were apparently still one vote short of getting the two thirds majority for the Senate to pass lifting the cap.

This is the same State Senate whose Republican majority found a way to pass a major voucher expansion bill along party lines that the majority of Arizona residents, as evidenced by the rejection of Proposition 305 at the ballot box in 2018, do not support.

Reacting to the State Senate not acting to allow Arizona school districts to spend the money the senators had voted last summer for them to have, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman posted on social media:

Thanks to the House vote this week, we're halfway there. But because of Senate inaction, we enter another weekend without a resolution to the spending cap issue. The clock is ticking… https://t.co/QLEFhbHn37

— Kathy Hoffman (@Supt_Hoffman) February 18, 2022

Save Our Schools Arizona posted:

The AZ Senate only has 5 working days to #WaiveTheCap ⏳
"Another day of inaction by the Arizona Senate means a long holiday weekend of doubt & fear for educators & parents across the state." The swiftness with which they passed voucher expansions shows their true priorities… https://t.co/ImK7rdajrw

— Save Our Schools AZ (@arizona_sos) February 18, 2022

It is time for Senate President Karen Fann to find one more Republican to vote to save Arizona’s public schools.