PHOENIX — The budget compromise reached by Arizona lawmakers and expected to be signed by the governor protects funds for private school vouchers while allowing cuts to public school programs for low-income students.
Those details, among others, left Democrat teachers serving in the legislature divided amongst themselves. Nancy Gutierrez of Tucson - a high school teacher - voted no on the budget. Laura Terech of Phoenix - a kindergarten teacher - voted yes.
“While this budget isn’t perfect, it represents the difficult compromises necessary in a divided government,” Terech (D) said Saturday while casting her vote on the House floor. She noted Democrats repelled efforts by Republicans to further cut public school funding and obtained hard-fought reforms to the voucher program. Those reforms include data tracking, auditing, a list of allowable expenses and a fingerprint requirement for private school educators.
However, Guitierrez criticized the fingerprint bill because it does not require private schools to provide the prints to law enforcement.
“The reforms they talk about are not reforms at all,” said Gutierrez (D), the Minority Whip. “We are cutting money to the most underserved schools, and we are doing that so we can continue an out-of-control, non-regulated program for many rich kids, 75% of which were already paying for private school and were never in public school.”
Poverty funding and scholarship cuts begin next year
Lawmakers faced the daunting task of resolving a roughly $1.6 billion deficit. The final agreement includes eliminating $37 million annually to K-12 school poverty funding and $24 million annually to the “Promise” low-income college scholarship program. Both cuts begin in one year.
Regarding the scholarship, universities will have to dip into their own budgets for existing students to finish the program.
Democrats also negotiated increased funding for deaf and blind students and a hard cap on private school tax credits that Terech said will save the state more than $30 million annually.
“Next year I hope a new legislature enacts comprehensive voucher reform,” Terech said. “However, that’s not to say there weren’t significant reforms today.”
Has Hobbs done enough to reform ESAs?
Hobbs campaigned on her ability to work with the other side of the aisle. She also vowed to reign in ESAs. To the surprise of many Democrats, last year’s budget included no ESA reforms at all.
“As a public school teacher myself, I really thought that by electing a Democratic governor, we would have had some cuts to ESA vouchers by now and we don’t,” Gutierrez said.
Hobbs issued a statement Saturday touting the “bipartisan reforms” in this year’s budget while adding they “are not enough.”
“I stand committed to bringing much-needed accountability and transparency to the unsustainable ESA program,” Hobbs said.
Nonprofit does not lay blame, appeals to voters instead
The father of the ESA expansion, House Speaker Ben Toma (R), defended the budget on the House floor Saturday.
“We’ve fixed this deficit without negatively impacting border security or public safety, without negatively impacting school choice,” Toma said.
The public-school nonprofit Save Our Schools, SOS, issued a statement describing “minor reforms” and lamenting there is no new funding for teacher raises or classroom resources. SOS called the lack of limits on vouchers “a slap in the face” to Arizona families that rely on public schools.
“This budget makes the path forward abundantly clear: No progress can be made for Arizona public schools until the balance of power is shifted at the legislature,” the statement reads.
JLBC: ESA expansion has no way to fund it
The ESA expansion is an unfunded mandate. It adds costs to the state’s annual expenses that have amounted to about half the total deficit. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee warned of this reality when a spokesperson told the legislature last year the ESA expansion law (passed in 2022) created an unusual scenario in which “there are these new requirements, but there is no way to fund them.”
On Saturday, House Democratic Leader Lupe Contreras blamed Republicans for causing the deficit and lauded all of his Democratic colleagues.
“We are in an extremely difficult deficit situation because of irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest Arizonans and a ballooning ESA voucher giveaway to those same families,” Contreras said in a written statement. “Whether they (Democrats) were a yes or a no vote on the state budget, I respect the work each of our members put in for their constituents.”
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