Weekly Ed Report February 13, 2023 - Save Our Schools Arizona

Save Our Schools Arizona
Weekly Education Report

56th Legislature, 1st General Session
Volume 5, Issue 6 • Week of February 13, 2023

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Hypocrisy at #AZLeg: Rules for Thee, but Not for Me

The hypocrisy of Arizona’s legislative leaders is on full display this week, with an onslaught of bills that impose onerous mandates only on public schools — all while the state sends $600 million in taxpayer dollars to ESA voucher schools with zero accountability or regulation. While the legislature is attempting to ban library books, ban diversity trainings, and force teachers to post every single material they use every single minute of the day, the state is funding discriminatory and hateful private schools and “chicken coops, ice-skating and cowboy roping lessons” with universal ESA vouchers.

At the same time, we are seeing bills to redirect still more taxpayer funding to STO vouchers for private schools, even though these programs lack the barest shred of transparency or accountability.

It’s important for all of us to make our opposition clear to these outrageous and unnecessary policies to bolster Gov. Hobbs as she inks her veto stamp. Speak up using the Request to Speak (RTS) system this week, and use our one-click email to make your voice heard.

Email your lawmakers TODAY, urging them to support SB1706.

AEL Update: This week, the Arizona Senate and House lifted the school spending cap (AEL), officially taking this fraught issue off the table for 2023. Thank you for raising your voice on this critical issue! It is evident that lawmakers acted under extreme public pressure to avoid school closures and teacher layoffs. Now, we call upon the legislature to develop a long-term solution for this outdated cap, so we don’t face the same issue every year. Read our full statement here.

ESA Voucher Accountability: We are very excited to report that the Senate Education Committee will hear SB1706 (Sen. Christine Marsh, D-4), which will create reporting requirements for the ESA voucher program. This program is costing taxpayers over $600 million per year, and better stewardship of taxpayer dollars is urgently needed.

Runaround on Gov. Hobbs: Republican lawmakers are attempting to circumvent Hobbs’ veto pen by passing measures known as “concurrent resolutions” (SCRs and HCRs), which are referred directly to voters and cannot be vetoed by Gov. Hobbs. This week’s dangerous legislative referrals include an attempt to insert the “parental bill of rights” peddled by extremists attacking public education into the Arizona Constitution. Other ideas would damage Arizona’s citizen initiative process, mandate enormous tax cuts, and upend the legislature’s budgeting process. Your voices are extremely important to create public pressure and help stop these harmful bills before they go straight to the ballot.

Calmer Waters in Sight: Committee agendas are extra-long this week because they are piling up against the first deadline. After Friday, if House bills haven’t made it through their House committees, and Senate bills through their Senate committees, they are considered dead for the year 🥳 Next week, all committees except Appropriations (which gets an extra week) and Rules will pause while lawmakers debate and vote in an attempt to pass bills so they can move to the other chamber.

Skinny Budget Fails: The Republican-only “status quo” budget failed to pass the House due to one holdout Republican who is asking for more than $5 billion in cuts to the state budget and seems unlikely to change her mind. Lawmakers’ next step should be negotiation and compromise. We urge the legislature to do the hard task of actual governing and to work with each other and the governor to advance a responsible budget that provides for Arizonans and prioritizes public education.

Bills in Request to Speak

SB1281, sponsored by Janae Shamp (R-29), is subject to a striker that would mandate state income tax rebates of $200 individual, $400 joint, for anyone who filed a tax return in 2022. The bill has no fiscal note, but roughly 2.7 million people file income taxes in Arizona every year, meaning this would probably cost the state between $540 million and $1.1 billion each year. A revenue cut of that amount would spell massive cuts to K-12 education. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

SB1577 and its companion bill SCR1035, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would mandate that, if Arizona has a budget surplus in any given year, the state must automatically cut income tax rates by 50% for the following year. Arizona has just begun to dig itself out of the Great Recession, which left Arizona underfunded in nearly every area and still struggling to fund K-12 schools. Meanwhile, Arizona still gives away more money every year in tax cuts, credits and carve-outs than it spends in its budget. The budget surplus isn’t evidence that we’re collecting too much revenue; it’s evidence of lawmakers’ persistent unwillingness to invest in our public schools and services. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

Actions!

Use Request to Speak on these bills before Tuesday at 1PM:

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2/13 – Using Social Media to Advocate

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Wednesday, February 15 – 11:30am-2pm

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Bills in Request to Speak

SCR1025, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would ask voters to insert the “parents bill of rights” into the state Constitution. This concept, pushed by the extremist Center for Arizona Policy, is often wielded as a far-right political bludgeon against public schools, while not applicable to private schools receiving taxpayer funds via vouchers. Scheduled for Senate Health & Human Services Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SCR1034, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would ask voters to amend the state Constitution to automatically extend the previous year’s state budget if lawmakers don’t pass one in time. This would remove the only real motivation for lawmakers to work together and avoid shutting down our state. In recent years, lawmakers have finished nearly every budget with days or even hours to spare before the start of the next fiscal year. Scheduled for Senate Appropriations Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

HB2533, sponsored by John Gillette (R-30), is a rehash of a failed bill from last year that would require public schools to post a list of every single item teachers use or discuss with students. The unrealistic and unnecessary burden this places on already overworked, underpaid Arizona teachers cannot be overstated. Private schools and microschools receiving taxpayer dollars via vouchers are predictably exempt. Backed by voucher pushers like the Goldwater Institute, and similar to legislation proposed in at least 17 other states. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

HB2539, sponsored by Beverly Pingerelli (R-28), would force the State Board of Education to implement a “public awareness program” to prop up school choice in Arizona, including free publicity for taxpayer-funded ESA vouchers. If someone moves to Arizona and registers a car here, the information would be delivered to them along with their registration. This absurd bill would spend $600,000 per year and create four full-time positions to handle this work. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

HB2786, sponsored by Justin Heap (R-10), would require school boards to notify parents of recommended or funded “training opportunities” for teachers or school administrators. The new Horne administration considers social-emotional learning, diversity and equity to be Trojan horses for “critical race theory,” and has canceled planned teacher presentations on these and other “non-academic” subjects, even though they positively impact kids’ lives and ability to learn. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

SB1040, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would ban trans kids from using the school bathrooms, changing facilities and “sleeping quarters” that align with their gender identities. It would create a situation where trans kids couldn’t use any facilities at all without undue scrutiny of their bodies, calling that a “reasonable accommodation.” Anyone who “encounters” a trans person in a bathroom could file suit against public schools. A federal court found that these policies violate the US Constitution and Title IX, so in addition to being monstrously cruel, this would open Arizona to a host of lawsuits at taxpayer expense. Kavanagh also introduced the bill last year, but it did not receive a hearing. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

SB1385, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-3), would require schools to include their rules and actions on school discipline in the list of educational performance indicators, and ties school discipline to school letter grades. Schools that don’t create a “school discipline profile” would not be allowed to receive a school letter grade of A or B. In his inaugural address, new Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne repeated out-of-touch, authoritarian rhetoric and signaled a discipline initiative to force schools to “keep orderly classrooms.” Letter grades, and learning in general, should not be conflated with school discipline. Punitive measures like these are not what kids need to help them thrive. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

SB1410, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would extend so-called “1487 complaints” to school boards. Passed in 2016, SB1487 allows any state lawmaker to order the Attorney General to investigate whether a city is violating state law. Under this bill, lawmakers could use 1487 complaints to block school boards from enacting policies they disagree with, obstructing local control. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

SB1657, sponsored by Ken Bennett (R-1), would reinstate statewide testing to graduate from high school. In 2015, when Republican lawmakers overwhelmingly chose to repeal the requirement, they stated that “the test has no meaning behind it” and that “placing all the responsibility and stress on individual students for the success of our educational system is unfair.” Other states that have repealed their high-stakes test requirements caution against conflating a measure of learning with “a meaningless hoop to jump through.” This bill contains no exceptions for students with many forms of special needs who struggle to pass standardized tests. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

SB1674, sponsored by Mitzi Epstein (D-12), would require the state Auditor General to complete a cost study of Arizona online instruction. Online schools have a checkered record of poor academic outcomes, low graduation rates, taxpayer waste and massive profit. A cost study is the first step at making sure students are learning and taxpayer dollars are properly spent. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.

SB1675, sponsored by Mitzi Epstein (D-12), would require public district and charter schools that serve students in grades 6-12 to make menstrual hygiene products available free of charge in all women’s and gender-neutral restrooms in the school, and appropriates $1 million for the program. For middle and high school girls, these products are a critical need. Many nurses and teachers pay for them out of their own pockets. A step toward providing a healthy, dependable environment that supports student learning. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.

SB1694, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would ban the state, including public schools, from requiring “diversity, equity, and inclusion programs” for its employees, spending public funds on such programs, or setting policies to influence the composition of its workforce on the basis of race, sex, or color. Any employee required to participate would be authorized to sue. Diversity, equity and inclusion is a philosophy designed to harness the differences, talents and unique qualities of all individuals. Of course, this bill does not impose any requirements on taxpayer-funded private schools receiving ESA vouchers. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

SB1696, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would double down on a bill passed last year by banning district and charter schools from exposing minors to “sexually explicit materials.” The incredibly broad description includes text, audio and video that references sexual contact, sexual excitement, and even physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed buttocks. This would ban many classic works of literature, from Shakespeare to Maya Angelou. Violations would be a class 5 felony. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

SB1700, sponsored by Justine Wadsack (R-17), would double down on last year’s measures to ban many books from schools and institute public review of such books. Any parent would be allowed to ask a school to remove a book, ADE would be required to keep a list of banned books, and public schools would have to make a list of books available to the public for 4 months before giving them to students. The bill takes aim at “gender fluidity” and “gender pronouns,” and would introduce an inaccurate, weaponized definition of “grooming” into statute. Attempts to ban books in schools are on the rise nationwide, with a new focus on local school boards. This horrifying bill not only harms the fight against child sexual abuse, but harms our children’s ability to learn. Many of the books that some see as controversial reflect the realities kids across Arizona are living; choosing to pull reality out of libraries won’t create good citizens. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

SB1706, sponsored by Christine Marsh (D-4), creates reporting that requires the ADE to release more information about who is using ESA vouchers and how taxpayer funds are being spent. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.

HB2014, sponsored by David Livingston (R-28), would quadruple over 3 years the amount Arizona spends on a specific type of STO (School Tuition Organization) voucher. STO vouchers, which topped $1 billion back in 2017, are paid for by dollar-for-dollar tax credits that siphon funds from the state coffers that fund public schools. Arizona capped STO voucher growth in 2019 due to bipartisan agreement that the exponential increases were harmful. While similar to a bill from 2 years ago, this bill also blurs the lines between ESA and STO voucher funding. Arizona’s ESA voucher program ballooned by 400% this year, with the vast majority of funding going to families who have never sent their children to public school. Scheduled for House Ways & Means Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

HCR2041, sponsored by David Marshall (R-7), would ask voters to restrict Arizona’s initiative and referendum process by requiring ballot measures to collect signatures from a percentage of voters in each of Arizona’s 30 legislative districts: 10% for initiatives and 15% for a constitutional amendment. This anti-democracy measure would effectively give any single district veto powers over the rest, and would almost certainly end citizen initiatives in Arizona. Nearly identical measures have been proposed in at least four other sessions, including last year, but have never passed. See duplicate bill SCR1015, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13). Scheduled for House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

This week, ESA voucher funded schools received intense scrutiny in Arizona, as stories of state-funded hate and discrimination came to light and more details emerged about how ESA vouchers are being spent.

State-funded discrimination. The AZ Republic reported this week that two gay fathers were confronted at a private school funded by ESA vouchers in the East Valley. The dads were told they were not welcome on campus, and that their child would not have been allowed to enroll had the school known they were gay.

State-funded hate. This is unsurprising, given the number of private schools receiving ESA vouchers that have anti-LGBTQ admissions processes. For example, Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Academies mandate that students, parents and staff attest to a hateful statement of faith.

Questionable purchases. The Guardian reported that Arizona’s overly expansive universal ESA vouchers are being used for unaccountable and questionable purchases, including “chicken coops, ice-skating and cowboy roping lessons.” Supt. Horne’s newly appointed ESA Director Christine Accurso says she’s approved 171,575 orders since taking over in January (or about 6,000 spending approvals per day).

The nation is watching as Arizona’s universal ESA voucher fiasco fails. Catch our OpEd from last week here.

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Save Our Schools Arizona Weekly Education Report

56th Legislature, 1st General Session Volume 5, Issue 6 • Week of February 13, 2023

Click here to jump to a section!

Click here to jump to a section!

Hypocrisy at #AZLeg: Rules for Thee, but Not for Me

Bills in Request to Speak

Actions!

Upcoming Events!

Bills in Request to Speak

Join Team SOSAZ!

Save Our Schools Arizona
Weekly Education Report

56th Legislature, 1st General Session
Volume 5, Issue 6 • Week of February 13, 2023