👏 Good news for now — federal vouchers stripped from Trump’s budget bill: We are practicing a very cautious victory dance as news that the federal tax credit voucher embedded in Trump’s budget bill has been taken out by the Senate parliamentarian. The voucher program was deemed not germane to the bill because it attempted to push policy through a budget bill and would therefore require 60 votes. The rulings mean those sections now will be dropped from the Senate version of the tax and spending cut measure, or rewritten in a way that meets the rules. 

This federal voucher is a huge push for an “unprecedented tax credit for a national school voucher program” according to CNN. We are extremely grateful to Senator Mark Kelly and Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari for speaking out against this scheme to dismantle public education.  

Thank YOU all for your tremendous advocacy on this!!! 

Our network sent 4000+ emails to members of Congress opposing the 

federal voucher scam.

😡 SCOTUS rules against LGBTQ+ books in public schools: On Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that parents with religious objections to books with LGBTQ+ characters must be able to opt their children out of any public school instruction using those books, delivering a win for the extremist religious right and for those who wish to diminish and harm public education. 

Your religion says what? The Mahmoud v. Taylor case sought a decision that any parents who object to any sort of classroom instruction on any religious grounds must be notified in advance and must be able to opt their child out. This raises many questions: How can schools know in advance which religious views are held by which parents, and which books or lessons will those parents object to? Will parents object on religious grounds to topics like divorce, interracial couples, immodest dress, evolution, pacifism, magic, women working outside the home, or different views of death or the afterlife? 

Once again making things harder for public schools: The decision will likely impose substantial new burdens on every public school in the country, and have a chilling effect on classroom instruction, discussion, and curriculum. If history is any predictor, many schools will exclude or remove books that even go so far as to mention LGBTQ+ characters. Schools will likely struggle to determine when they are required to warn parents of a particular lesson, and schools that draw the line in the wrong place now risk being dragged into an expensive lawsuit (which seems to us to be the entire point).

So, it’s the pride part that’s the problem? Justice Alito’s majority opinion doesn’t outright ban books with LGBTQ+ characters,  but argues that the books are objectionable if they suggest that certain aspects of LGBTQ+ culture should be “celebrated.” One of the contested books is a fairy tale about a prince who marries a knight. According to Alito, the book “relates that ‘on the two men’s wedding day, the air filled with cheer and laughter, for the prince and his shining knight would live happily ever after.’” Alito claims this book is objectionable not because it includes a same-sex wedding, but because it portrays this wedding as a good thing. 

🔥”Unable to condone that grave misjudgment, I dissent”: We are grateful for Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion, summarized here:

“Public schools, this court has said, are ‘at once the symbol of our democracy and the most pervasive means for promoting our common destiny. They offer to children of all faiths and backgrounds an education and an opportunity to practice living in our multicultural society. That experience is critical to our nation’s civic vitality. Yet it will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents’ religious beliefs. 

Today’s ruling ushers in that new reality… Exposing students to the ‘message’ that LGBTQ people exist, and that their loved ones may celebrate their marriages and life events, the majority says, is enough to trigger the most demanding form of judicial scrutiny… Given the great diversity of religious beliefs in this country, countless interactions that occur every day in public schools might expose children to messages that conflict with a parent’s religious beliefs. If that is sufficient to trigger strict scrutiny, then little is not. The result will be chaos for this nation’s public schools. Requiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent’s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools. The harm will not be borne by educators alone: Children will suffer too. Classroom disruptions and absences may well inflict long-lasting harm on students’ learning and development. Worse yet, the majority closes its eyes to the inevitable chilling effects of its ruling.  

Many school districts, and particularly the most resource strapped, cannot afford to engage in costly litigation over opt-out rights or to divert resources to tracking and managing student absences. Schools may instead censor their curricula, stripping material that risks generating religious objections. The court’s ruling, in effect, thus hands a subset of parents the right to veto curricular choices long left to locally elected school boards.

The reverberations of the Court’s error will be felt, I fear, for generations. Unable to condone that grave misjudgment, I dissent.”

Budget and sine die. Senate President Warren Petersen began the week with the unusual step of advancing both House sham budgets through the Senate for votes, which he said he did “out of respect.” Everyone knew these two rogue budgets were doomed from the start; as expected, the sham budgets met Gov. Hobbs’ veto stamp within just minutes of being transmitted to her desk. Hobbs now holds a new record for the most vetoes in any legislative session, a jaw-dropping 169 bills. 

After that, it didn’t take long for the House to finally bow to reality and pass the Senate budget negotiated with Gov. Hobbs and House Democrats. On Thursday, each bill passed the House with 40-42 yes votes. Amendments were very minor, and hostile amendments offered by fringe Republicans all failed. 

Both chambers adjourned sine die (a Latin term meaning the session is fully concluded and cannot reconvene) midday on Friday. The best part of the legislature being out of session is knowing they can do no further harm — at least for now.

Republicans in chaos. In the wake of all this budget drama, both the House and Senate Republican caucuses are showing deep fractures. Petersen issued scathing comments on the Senate floor: he called the House’s plan “insane” and expressed frustration that lawmakers allowed themselves to be “hoodwinked by charlatans.” Senate Republicans then replaced their majority leader, booting MAGA extremist Janae Shamp (R-29) for key budget negotiator John Kavanagh (R-3). Clearly, the so-called “freedom” wing of the Senate Republican caucus has little power. 

Likewise, in Tuesday’s Republican caucus meeting, House Speaker Steve Montenegro interrupted House Appropriations Committee chair David Livingston with, “Chairman, I think we’ve heard enough.” Livingston may not get to keep his leadership slot, as his myopic, fumbled “negotiating” style has left the House Republican caucus with egg on its face. We’ll see what changes get made between now and next January. Stay tuned to “As the AZ Legislature Turns” 🍿

From Page to Power: A Justice-Focused Book Club by Save Our Schools Arizona Network! Join us virtually on Sunday, July 13 and August 10 from 3:00-4:00 pm over Zoom to discuss our next read “Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy” by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad! No pressure to finish the book—come for the conversation. Let’s read, reflect, and build power for Arizona’s public schools! Sign up to get the zoom info!

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