What are the Republicans in the State Legislature Doing with Twenty Seven Days Until Financial Doomsday in Arizona’s Public Schools? NOTHING

There are 27 Days to go until Arizona’s Public Schools are forced to make draconian cuts to their budgets because they do not have permission to spend monies that are already in their bank accounts.

Why is this?

Despite Democratic efforts by legislators like Legislative District (LD) 17 State Representative Jennifer Pawlik and LD 28 State Senator Christine Marsh, Republican leaders in the Arizona State Legislature are doing nothing to override the archaic 1980 State Expenditure Limit or, better yet, repeal it (as the Pawlik and Marsh Legislation proposes.)

Why are Republicans doing this?

There are a variety of reasons. All of them show a complete disregard for families, educators, and staffs in traditional public schools.

These include:

• Not wanting to give the judge who is about to rule on the funding of Invest in Ed-Proposition 208 a reason to rule against their side by overriding the cap and showing it could be done for 208 funds. Newsflash. The cap has already been overridden on multiple occasions in the past. The judge probably already knows what can be done.
• Wanting to drive every conceivable fringe and extreme right wing education legislative proposal (voucher expansion, book banning, anti transgender athlete, and teaching a sanitized view of United States History) into any legislation that would remove or override the cap.
• Perhaps (and this is pure speculation on this writers part) using this as an opportunity to help the corporate and very conservative charter school owners (not to be confused with the ones who are in it for education and raising student achievement) that contribute to their campaign coffers.
• Continuing the extreme right war on traditional public schools.

Arizona Democratic Legislators have been spending time on social media and the Legislature floor decrying this Republican insensitivity to the plight of the state’s traditional public schools.

Current LD 18 State Representative Mitzi Epstein posted:

The #AZLEG voted for the school budget and schools are following that budget. #AZLeg put the money in the bank for schools.

Now, Republican leaders are delaying a vote to allow schools to USE the money that AZLEG approved.

We need to vote to override the #AEL … 1/2 https://t.co/qbO8JK1Z95

— Sen. Mitzi Epstein (@MitziEpstein) January 30, 2022

LD 28 State Representative Sarah Liguori, while calling attention to a guest educator in the House Gallery, called out the Republicans for their lack of urgency in dealing with the funding problem facing traditional public schools.

Rep. @SarahKLiguori introduces a guest parent and educator, Tara Armstead, who is pleading with the #AZleg to show urgency and move to fix the outdated 1980 funding limit on public schools before $1.2 billion must be cut on March 1. #ael pic.twitter.com/yyH8d7EMhg

— Arizona House Democrats (@AZHouseDems) January 31, 2022

LD 19 State Representative Lorenzo Sierra brought up the obvious facts that class sizes will markedly increase, good teachers will be laid off, and lives will be hurt if the expenditure cap is not lifted.

“A month from now, superintendents are going to have tell educators who have good work reviews that they don’t have a job anymore…the clock is ticking…we must not fail our schools.” @Sierra4AZ warns that cuts forced by the 1980 ed expenditure limit begin March 1 without action. pic.twitter.com/7gs4R88kbz

— Arizona House Democrats (@AZHouseDems) February 1, 2022

Superintendent Hoffman Continues to Call attention to What will Happen if the Cap is not Lifted.

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman continued her efforts to warn about what would happen if the State Expenditure Cap was not lifted.

In a statement today (February 2, 2022,) Superintendent Hoffman relayed:

“Legislative leaders have less than one month to prevent Arizona’s school districts from facing existential budget cuts.

Without a fix to the school funding limit, schools will undoubtedly lay off educators, cut programs, and in the worst cases close their doors.

I am tired of legislative leaders playing political games with public schools, educators and students. There are solutions already introduced as bills thanks to Representative Jennifer Pawlik and Senator Christine Marsh — I urge the majority party to act immediately and allow our schools to get on with serving their students and families.”

The Superintendent is also continuing to post graphics showing how each school district will be impacted if the expenditure cap is not lifted. Below are some recent examples from this week.

 

AEA President Joe Thomas Calls on the Republican Leadership to Act

Like Superintendent Hoffman and the Democrats in the State Legislature, Arizona Education Association President Joe Thomas called on Republican leadership to act quickly on removing the cap, commenting:

“Speaker Bowers and President Fann have the power to send bills to their Republican committee chairs. I do not believe any of the bills/resolutions addressing the temporary fix or the permanent fix to the massive budget cuts schools will face in 27 days have been assigned to a committee. This is a non-controversial vote both chambers of the AZ legislature need to take affirming that schools can spend all of the dollars those very same legislators budgeted for the schools. Any delay or attempt to leverage this vote to pass more vouchers or school privatization policies can only be seen as an attack on our students and public schools.”

Save Our Schools Arizona Director Beth Lewis Calls on Republican Leadership to have the Right Priorities.

Beth Lewis, the Director for Save Our Schools Arizona called on Republicans to have the right priorities for Arizona’s children in traditional public schools. She stated.

“The priorities of the AZ legislature couldn’t be more misplaced. Instead of working to resolve this school spending limit quickly, legislative leadership is playing political games and focusing on massive private school voucher expansions that drain public school funding, attacks on teachers, and bans on books and honest history. We call upon lawmakers to focus on what matters – funding our starving public schools that serve the vast majority of Arizona’s Students.”

Moving Forward

It is vital that Arizonans contact their State Legislators and demand that they vote to allow traditional public schools to spend the money that is already in their accounts.

Activist groups should also make certain that the “public servants” that are willing to let this financial doomsday for traditional public schools happen are known to voters well before Election Day in November.

They should also move with quick dispatch on getting a proposition on the ballot to remove the expenditure cap.

Even the Republicans in the safest red seats in the state should have to answer to all the parents of children in public schools in their districts and explain why, especially during a health pandemic and four years after Red for Ed, they decided to go to full scale war on public schools and harm their children’s lives.