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"Democracy is important and it's rapidly disappearing in this country and the people have had enough of the oligarchy, America is watching."

- Tucson woman attending the Bernie Sanders and AOC’s Fighting Oligarchy event.

Over 15,000 attended Tempe’s rally with 9,000 showing up in Tucson.

THIS WEEK AT THE LEGISLATURE

This upcoming week will be the last week for committees to hear bills, which means one more week of long agendas. As session continues to move along, these types of deadlines mark inflection points if issues will continue on or be stalled.

There are two timely issues tied to funding cliffs needing resolution: the Department of Child Safety’s congregate care program and the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) funding. DCS received the legislatures approval this week to transfer $6.5 million from other DCS programs to keep congregate care afloat for another month. An additional $2.5 million was redirected to support extended foster care services through May, after an unexpected rise in cases left the program underfunded. However DDD’s funding future is still unknown as it is expected to run out next month.

For weeks, Democrats and disability advocates have been urging the Legislature to address the looming shortfall in DDD funding. Members and family members of the disability community have shown up throughout the session, voicing their frustration and sense of betrayal as the Majority continues to play politics with what are literally life-or-death services.

During Tuesday’s Floor session, Democrats took time to stand and introduce individuals and families from our disability community around the state — lifting up their stories and highlighting the critical, life-sustaining services they receive through DDD. It was a powerful way to express the lives behind the numbers and I am grateful for those entrusting their stories with us.

My reading the importance of DDD services for a mom with two disabled children in Casa Grande.

EDUCATION

As we watch the Project 2025 playbook continue to come to life, the education chapter of its policy blueprint begins with the statement: Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated. This week, an executive order was put in front of the President to sign doing just this. Additionally, Project 2025 recommends allowing Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which provides funding to low-income schools, to expire, thereby removing approximately $18 billion in federal funds designated for schools in low-income areas.

Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education would devastate Arizona schools, we receive $1 billion in federal funding and have 20,000 education jobs at risk. Cutting the DOE strips away millions in federal funding for low-income students, students with disabilities, and English language learners. Critical programs like Title I and IDEA that support our most vulnerable kids would disappear, leaving already underfunded schools struggling even more. Also, without federal civil rights protections, students facing discrimination would have fewer avenues for justice.

Arizona already ranks near the bottom in education funding, defunding education would deepen inequities and hurt the communities that need support the most.

Take two minutes to hear House Democratic Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Gutierrez outline the educational effects to our state.
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If you want to learn more about the history behind the strategy to dismantle public education, I recommend reading Nancy Berkshire’s book, The Wolf At The Schoolhouse Door. She writes about the conservative long game, starting from the desegregation of schools in 1954 and the creation of the Department of Education in 1979, to dismantle and create for-profit driven education models. Because it isn’t a secret, Trump quoted this exact strategy during his EO signing, opportunistically seeing a child’s educational journey as a financial tool instead of a lifelong learning foundation.

In her most recent Have you Heard podcast, Letter To A Trump Voter, Berkshire discusses the importance of bipartisan alignment on education because the abolishment of the Education Department will hurt all children, making educational access and economic inequality devastatingly worse. Give it a listen below.

Letter To A Trump Voter ([link removed])

And finally, I ended the week with two of my favorite things: housing and the youth. As a follow-up to last week’s newsletter, HB 2191 went to the House floor on Thursday — and turned into quite the spectacle. The bill had support from cities, didn’t change any zoning laws, included community input, and simply allowed non-profits and churches to create a small number of permanently affordable single-family homes so that working people around our state would have an opportunity to buy a home and build equity. But misinformation and "not in my backyard" pressure campaigns from homeowners spooked enough Republicans to sink it — including all four faith leaders among them, with one citing the issue that churches wouldn’t be able to discriminate against witch covens and satanists (yes, really).

Every Democrat voted yes, and we fought to bring the bill back when absent members returned, but the Speaker and Republicans refused. Change is hard, housing work is hard — but we were each elected to work on solutions to the hardest issues in the state. As Eric Levitz put it, “An economic system biased toward scarcity and stagnation is one that serves the already comfortable better than the disadvantaged.” My biggest thanks to all the faith leaders who have worked hard on this policy the past two years, including the non-profits Valley Interfaith Project and Arizona Housing Coalition.

Senators Sundareshan, Kuby and Representatives Connelly and Liguori with the ASU Young Dems

Big thanks to the ASU Young Democrats for inviting Rep. Janeen Connelly and Senators Priya Sundareshan and Lauren Kuby to participate in a speed-mentoring meeting to celebrate Women’s History Month. These students are in various places of their educational journey - majoring in everything from political science to economics to engineering and history. The top issues they expressed most important to them were 1) the inability to afford housing 2) the current destruction of our democracy 3) discrimination attempts to erase whole classes of people.

There were more than a few future leaders in this group and I am in awe of all they are doing at such a young age to be present in civic discussions and work towards building the future they want to see.

With kindness,

Sarah



** Town Hall Save The Date
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TOWNHALL SIGNUP ([link removed])


** Community Corner
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Saturday morning kicked off with the 2nd Annual Unity Cruise to the Capitol event at Encanto Park, hosted by my House colleague Rep. Cesar Aguilar. Over 100 cars lined up in festive display to celebrate lowrider car culture and also honor the passing of Congressman Raul Grijalva and civil rights attorney Phil Austin, whose daughter, Rep. Lorena Austin, carries on his legacy.

The cruise ended at the Capitol to continue the celebration with music, food, and community.
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Cars cruising, with rider Rep. Stephanie Simacek, Rep. Lorena Austin, and proud car owners Mark Cardenas,

Devin del Palacio, and Sophia Carrillo.


** Stand Down Success
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This years Stand Down event welcomed 1,407 veterans — a powerful reminder of both the strength and the challenges within our community. Of those, 249 were experiencing literal homelessness, 188 were in transitional housing, and 246 were at risk. Notably, 67% of attendees reported having a disability status.

Thanks to strong partnerships, the Arizona Housing Coalition was able to bridge many homeless veterans to hotel placements after connecting with case workers — a critical step in stabilizing lives. This is exactly why legislation like HB2803, which would require hotels to post a sign that unsheltered people may be staying at the property, would undermine efforts to get folks off the streets and onto a path to permanent housing.

Governor Hobbs and DVS Director John Scott joined in the opening ceremonies, and Representative Travers, a veteran herself, stopped by to engage with the volunteers and participants.

Local Business Alert!

The owners of Mariscos Playa Hermosa have opened a new restaurant in central Phoenix on 16th st and Palm Ln. Cielo Rojo ([link removed]) is the Maldonado family’s new venture into the cuisine of central and southern Mexico. Support local businesses and enjoy great food!

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