Arizona Legislature Updates
No Caps, No School Takeovers
Aggregate Expenditure Limit
Arizona public schools face $1.1 Billion in cuts on March 1, 2022 if the Legislature does not override K-12 spending cap. A law passed in 1980 approved a limit on what public schools are allowed to spend in a year. If schools exceed the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) in a school year the law allows the legislatures to provide an "expenditure override" with 2/3 votes in each chamber. The override does not increase taxes and is not attached to the 2022 budget decisions. The AEL does not include Charter Schools since they did not exist in Arizona in 1980, nor does it include Private Schools. Some legislators have been using the AEL as a bargaining chip to pass private school voucher expansion in exchange for lifting the Public School cap on spending.
We called upon all Arizonans to contact their state legislators to remove the cap this year, and stop the cuts to education spending in future budgets with no string attached.
Aggregate Expenditure Limit News
Today (2/14/22) the Arizona Legislature introduced and fast tracked two bills that will allow Arizona Public Schools to spend the budgeted amounts given them by the Arizona Legislature.
HCR2039 in the Arizona House and SCR1050 in the Arizona Senate.
The primary sponsor for these identical bills are the Majority Leader (Republican) of their respective chambers (Fann in Senate, Bowers in House) signaling this is the solution that can get the votes in the Republican caucus to pass. Notably, the Minority Leader (Democratic) of their respective chambers (Rios in Senate, Bolding in House) listed as co-sponsors signaling these bills are the negotiated compromise to avoid a 1.2 Billion dollar mistake that would shut down the school districts.
Read the bills below -
https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/55leg/2R/bills/HCR2039P.pdf
https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/55leg/2R/bills/SCR1050P.pdf
Call to Action!
Please call your Arizona Legislators and ask them to support HCR2039 in the Arizona House and SCR1050 in the Arizona Senate. These bills still need a 2/3 vote in each chamber to ensure the bills pass and can be sent to the Governor for his signature, which is needed due to the emergency nature of the March 1 deadline. (Most bills go into effect the day after the last day of the session, Sine Die.
If you would like to know specifically how much your public school district was set to lose access to, please visit our website and search for your school district.
https://right2safeschoolsaz.org/stop-the-cuts
To find your Arizona Legislator please visit https://www.azleg.gov/findmylegislator/
Follow the instructions to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Committee website and use your home address to find the Legislative District (state) and Congressional District (federal)
Come to the Arizona Capitol
On Tuesday, February 15th, at 11:30-Noon, Public School supporters plan to rally in support of public schools. Grab an apron and see you at the AZ Capitol. If you are unable to attend, please retweet and share those that are sharing testimony and pictures of the event.
Arizona Needs a Long Term Solution
The passage of HCR2039 in the Arizona House and SCR1050 in the Arizona Senate, if signed by the Governor by March 1, 2022, will be a step in the right direction, Arizona required a permanent solution to the 42 year old K-12 spending cap introduced before personal computers and other technology was a mainstream expense for schools.
Senator Christine Marsh (D) from LD28 submitted SB1221 in the Arizona Senate and Representative Jennifer Pawlik (D) from LD17 submitted HB2335 in the Arizona House
for consideration that would eliminate this emergency lifting of the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) that is used by some politicians as a bargaining chip. These bills have yet to be assigned to a committee.
Please call your legislators and ask them to push the Senate President to give SB1211 and House Majority Leader to give HB2335, respectively, a committee hearing and vote on the floor so that Arizona Public Schools will be able to budget with surety and security.
Bad Bill Alert
Call today! HB2808 is a terrible bill.
Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak System
Another way to be involved in the legislative process can be done from the comfort of your own house. With the help of our friends at Civic Engagement Beyond Voting, you can get an account activated to use the Arizona Legislatures Request to Speak System (RTS). You may ask, but I don’t have time to go and speak in person on all the bills I am passionate about. Never fear, the RTS system allows you to leave a comment on each bill and mark that you do not want to come to speak. You can also leave your Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down on bills. Yes, the legislators look at these comments and votes. Learn how to get involved, get your account activated by a fantastic CEVB volunteer, and even attend basic training or happy hour at https://www.cebv.us/rts.html
Masks, Filter, Vaccines Oh My!
By now your school district has settled into lifting mitigations or laxing on enforcement of mitigations in the classroom. Unfortunately, the FDA/CDC approval process to get vaccines available to all children (birth to 5) has stalled and there remains households with vulnerable populations. While the government and politicians appear to be over this pandemic, there remains highly contagious stains among our communities. One of the mitigation measures that has not been utilized in classrooms on a large scale is filtration. Due to a lack of interest by Governor Ducey, who holds the federal covid funds that could be used for ensuring every classroom has a HEPA filter. Local advocates have teamed up across the state of Arizona to gather donations to purchase HEPA filters, box fans, and duct tape in an effort to build Corsi-Rosenthal box filters for as many classrooms as they can.Corsi-Rosenthal box filters have been test and demonstrate an effective way filter out Airborne virus particulates that range in size from 1 to 50 microns (μm); the correct size to remove Covid-19 from the air. Rosenthal used his HVAC company's testing equipment to run an informal test of the design, in which he found that around 60% of 1 μm particles were removed by the system, and almost 90% of 10 μm particles were removed
You can help!
Please donate if you can and share the donation link across your social media channels.
Volunteer to gather materials or build.
We could also use help making phone calls to local hardware stores requesting donations of materials.
For more information navigate to this link https://linktr.ee/DIYAirFilter , or reply to this email and we will get you more information.
Thank you for all you do to support Arizona Students!
-Right 2 Safe Schools Team