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High Drama at the AZ Legislature
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This week, the Senate passed a state budget negotiated with Gov. Hobbs, Senate Republicans and legislative Democrats, working into the middle of the night. Unfortunately, the Senate’s budget fails to prioritize K-12 public education and continues the status quo for Arizona students, keeping our classrooms funded at 49th in the US. However, it doesn’t make cuts to public education — unlike the House Republican version passed last week. [[link removed]]
😑 Public Schools Get Short End of the Stick: The Senate’s budget contains zero reforms for our state's off-the-rails, $1 billion universal voucher program , even as it funds an additional no-strings-attached $52 million check for vouchers to cover unbudgeted expenses from last school year.
Meanwhile, the Republican majority chose to increase public school funding only by the bare minimum required by law (2% for inflation). This bare-bones increase fails to address the teacher retention crisis, provide additional supports and resources for students, or develop career and workforce pathways. It guarantees that, when it comes to their education, our state’s 1 million public school students will continue receiving the short end of the stick.
As former Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman said in her op-ed this week [[link removed]] , "Sadly, our public school system is holding on by a thread — and we are running out of time to act. Arizona’s public schools need our support more than ever. In many school districts across the state, especially in rural Arizona, communities are facing excruciating budget decisions: Close schools? Lay off teachers? Eliminate music classes?"
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💰 Show Me the Money: We never expected this year's budget to provide any sort of win for public schools, teachers and students. That’s because the revenue just isn’t there. State revenues are bone-dry due to the $1 billion voucher scam and former Gov. Ducey’s massive tax cuts for the rich [[link removed]] . As an analysis by the Grand Canyon Institute points out [[link removed]] , “The Flat Tax costs Arizona in excess of $2 billion PER YEAR, and 80% of the proceeds go to those with incomes above $200,000… Arizona now has flat-line budgeting that limits the state’s ability to make significant investments that better people’s lives.” Making this problem even worse, because Republicans failed to negotiate a renewal of Prop 123, this year the legislature has had to use general funds to cover over $300 million [[link removed]] that would otherwise have flowed from the state land trust.
👏 Standing Up for Public Schools: Some senators used their “no” votes to advocate for public schools in protest of this raw deal.
* Senate minority leader Priya Sundareshan (D-18) said it “fails to meet the moment in many ways,” [[link removed]] including a lack of ongoing funding for public education, and pointed to the ongoing drain on the general fund that is our state’s universal ESA voucher program.
* Longtime teacher and school administrator Senator Eva Diaz (D-22) said [[link removed]] the Senate budget "does not do nearly enough for our public schools, educators and children."
* Ranking Senate Finance member Mitzi Epstein (D-12) explained on social media [[link removed]] , “This is the main reason that I voted Nay on the budget. K-12 per-pupil funding has not even kept up with inflation. This budget makes it worse- slipping further behind in $/student, teacher pay, etc.”
Small Wins for K-12: We are grateful that the K-12 portion of this year’s budget includes funding for the K-12 opportunity weight (funding directed to our state’s most at-risk students) and District Additional Assistance — however, this funding is only for a single year. The budget also lifts the AEL (Aggregate Expenditure Limit) school spending cap for the next 2 years.
😣 More Tax Cuts: Sadly, the negotiated budget also contains various tax cuts which reduce ongoing state revenues even further, draining away funding the state needs to support its public schools. For example, budget bill SB1749 nearly doubles Arizona’s business personal property tax exemption, which is projected to cost the state nearly $1 million per year while shifting the balance of the financial burden onto individual property taxpayers.
Including even more tax cuts in our budgets is foolish and destructive. Arizona’s tax carve-outs have skyrocketed over the past decade, spiraling from $16 billion in 2014 to nearly $30 billion in 2024. Our state revenues have hit deadpool, the point where any additional tax cut or credit means something important goes unfunded. For example, K-12 public schools continue to miss out on ongoing funding, such as District Additional Assistance and the Opportunity Weight for low-income, at-risk students, precisely because our lawmakers chip away at our state’s bottom line with tax expenditures like these — expenditures which effectively guarantee that Arizona can’t count on ongoing revenues.
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📅 What’s Next: After passing the negotiated budget, the Senate adjourned “sine die,” signaling the end of legislative session. Usually both the Senate and House do this on the same night. However, the House must still approve the budget passed by the Senate in order for it to reach the governor’s desk and be signed into law. Instead of getting to work, the House adjourned until Monday — when several members are traveling to Italy for Rep. Gress’ wedding 👀The Senate inserted various House Republican asks into the final version of their budget, and multiple sources say the House has the necessary votes to pass the Senate version of the budget.
🤔 Shutdown Incoming? However, House Republican leadership is big mad that their go-it-alone “sham” budget was rejected [[link removed]] . House speaker Steve Montenegro (R-29) announced late Friday that the House is drafting a second sham budget [[link removed]] to send to the Senate, this one a so-called "baseline" (continuation) budget that is designed with no additional spending. Montenegro said in his statement that the negotiated Senate budget lacks the support to pass, but this most likely means they’re stubbornly requiring the budget to have support from a “majority of the majority” [[link removed]] — i.e., at least 51% of the House’s 33-member Republican caucus — in order to move forward for a vote, even as the state faces a government shutdown thanks to the petulant whims [[link removed]] of a handful of Republican lawmakers who didn’t get their way. Stay tuned! 🍿
READ THE FULL WEEKLY EDUCATION REPORT HERE [[link removed]]
LEA EL SEMANARIO EN ESPAÑOL [[link removed]]
AZ’s Voucher Scam in the News
💸 $20 Million on Voucher Extras⁉️ A new 12 News investigation has found that nearly $20 million in tax dollars was spent on extracurriculars [[link removed]] , such as private swim and dance lessons for ESA voucher students in homes and private schools over the past three years. The report comes from payment records from Supt. Horne, and are surely the tip of the iceberg as “State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, whose office administers and provides general supervision and oversight of the ESA [voucher] program, refused to release other recent records to 12 News.”
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The new records “show taxpayers are covering activities for kids that public school families pay for themselves.” Nearly $20 million was spent on just eight extra-curricular activities for kids getting vouchers:
* $6.8 million was spent on private music lessons
* $2.8 million was spent on swimming lessons
* $2.8 million was spent on math tutoring
* $1.9 million was spent on gymnastics
* $1.6 million was spent on dance
* $1.3 million was spent on fitness
* $1.1 million was spent on horseback riding
* $1 million was spent on martial arts
🔥 As Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts said in her recent op-ed [[link removed]] , “In the language of public school parents, such things are called “extracurricular” activities and they — not taxpayers — pay for them… look for the mostly well-to-do parents in the [ESA voucher] program to gallop away with $1 billion in public money next year, as the universal voucher program — the one our leaders created to supposedly get poor children out of failing public schools — continues to explode.
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More than a third [of vouchers] are going [to] those making more than $100,000 a year, including more than 700 children in the poverty-stricken town of Paradise Valley. It’s difficult to pay for piano lessons, after all, when you live in a community where the median household income is a mere $182,150.” 😂
“The only ESA ‘reform’ that’s been talked about at the Legislature this year is a plan to hold the public schools hostage [[link removed]] unless voters agree to cement vouchers-for-all into the Arizona Constitution. Specifically, to ask voters in 2026 to extend the soon-to-expire Proposition 123 — allotting $300 million in state land proceeds to fund teacher pay raises — but only if they also agree to add constitutional protections for little Emma and her horse, Bluebell. One would think that you could refer the two proposals to the ballot as separate questions — as the law would seem to require — but our leaders aren’t that dumb. They know what voters would do if given the chance.
Their plan to tie teacher pay in public schools to constitutional protection for vouchers is supposedly dead. But be warned. No bad idea really dies until our leaders finally, at long last, adjourn and go the heck home. Keep your eyes peeled, Arizona.”
What’s Happening at the AZ Leg?
💸 Bills on the Move: In these waning days of session, lawmakers are dusting off and advancing a number of long-stalled bills.
This week, the Senate advanced SOSAZ-opposed HB2704 [[link removed]] , which would redirect $500 million in taxpayer dollars, which could otherwise be used for priorities like public education, to renovations of the Diamondbacks stadium. HB2704 requires a final vote from the House before advancing to the governor’s desk, where it is likely to receive her signature.
The House also gave a final vote to anti-democratic HB2610 [[link removed]] (Gress, R-4), which would require the superintendent and school board members of school districts placed under receivership (a situation where someone takes over the district's finances and operations, overriding decisions of the local board and superintendent) to be fired and replaced [[link removed]] without any say from the voters who elected them. We expect Gov. Hobbs to veto this harmful, anti-democratic bill.
✅ Stay in the know: The SOSAZ Bill Tracker [[link removed]] contains full information about the bills SOSAZ supports or opposes and gives you up-to-the-minute information on where these bills stand.
Take Action!
🚨 REIN IN VOUCHERS — IN THIS YEAR’S BUDGET! 🚨
There’s still room to negotiate: Tell your lawmakers and Gov. Hobbs [[link removed]] that unaccountable vouchers for the rich must be reined in in this year’s budget! Our students deserve quality resources, safe buildings, and rich academic experiences that will prepare them for a strong future. Our educators deserve pay raises and quality working conditions that benefit all teachers, staff and students.
NOW is the time to demand true voucher reform and fund our public schools. Our easy-to-use, one-click email tool is preloaded with a message, but we encourage you to customize your email for maximum impact. Click HERE to send an email now! [[link removed]] [[link removed]]
🚨 There’s still time to ACT — Say NO to Federal Vouchers 🚨
📨 EMAIL NOW: Tell your members of Congress to vote NO on federal vouchers with our easy-to-use tool ➡️ bit.ly/NoFedVouchers [[link removed]]
☎️💥 CALL TODAY: Call AZ Senators Kelly & Gallego and your US House Rep. using this easy script [[link removed]] — 3 quick calls take 10 minutes MAX!
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