Arizona teachers reject ‘bad faith’ plan tying funding renewal to voucher protections

Public education advocates say they’ll work to kill a Republican effort to add private school vouchers to the Arizona Constitution by tying them to renewing funding to increase teacher pay — even if that means forfeiting millions in public school funding. 

Over the past two years, the GOP-controlled legislature has failed to resolve an upcoming fiscal cliff that threatens to cost K-12 public schools $300 million annually. And the deadline is fast approaching. The end of June also marks the end of Proposition 123, which voters narrowly approved in a 2016 special election, and the money it diverts from the state land trust to public schools. 

Stripping more than $300 million from Arizona schools could lead to layoffs and school closures at a time when Arizona is already crippled by a teacher shortage. To ensure the continued existence of that funding source, an extension has to be sent to voters. Last week, Republicans unveiled a plan to do just that — but loaded up with their policy priorities, including ensuring school vouchers can’t be scrapped. 

Along with renewing Prop. 123 through 2036, Republicans said they plan to include language to enshrine school choice in the state constitution, making access to GOP favorites like charter schools, homeschooling and the controversial Empowerment Scholarships Account program a guaranteed right. Commonly referred to as ESAs, the school vouchers have been criticized for costing the state nearly a billion dollars with little regulation or oversight. The program is expected to cost Arizona as much as $861 million this fiscal year. 

Adding the school choice initiatives to the state constitution would block any future reform efforts. Gov. Katie Hobbs and Democratic lawmakers have been staunch opponents of ESAs, and attempted to rein in the program over the years, with no success. 

At a Monday press conference, flanked by posters reading “Stop welfare for the rich” and “Vouchers: bankrupting our state,” public education advocates denounced the Republican plan and announced they would mobilize against it if Republicans send the plan to voters. 

Marisol Garcia, the president of the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, called the plan “bad faith” and said her organization is launching a media campaign to defeat it and hold its proponents accountable. Voters, she said, shouldn’t be forced to approve of private school vouchers to ensure public school funding is preserved. 

“This is a charade,” Garcia said. “The educators who are right now doing the work that parents expect of them should be treated with respect and private schools should be treated separately.” 

Sharon Kirsch, the co-founder of Save Our Schools Arizona, which has long opposed private school vouchers, added that attaching ESAs to the renewal of Prop. 123 presents constitutional concerns. The Arizona Constitution mandates that ballot initiatives focus on just one subject, to avoid forcing voters to support proposals they would otherwise have rejected. 

“Our message is: We’ll see you in court,” Kirsch said, to loud cheers from the teachers in attendance.

While the state constitution does require ballot initiatives to adhere to just one subject, the courts are often unwilling to dismiss proposals before voters have a chance to weigh in. And, in at least one recent legal challenge, the courts ruled to greenlight a ballot measure made up of several ostensibly different topics because of an overarching theme. 

A lawsuit against a proposal that made it a state crime to cross the Arizona-Mexico border anywhere but at an official port of entry, enacted new penalties against people convicted of the sale of lethal fentanyl, and criminalized the use of false documentation to apply for public benefits or jobs was thrown out after the Arizona Supreme Court agreed with Republican lawmakers that each of those provisions fell under the umbrella of border security.

Public education supporters are confident that, if the ballot measure makes it before voters, Arizonans will reject it rather than enshrine private school vouchers in the constitution. 

Kirsch pointed out that voters in the Grand Canyon State have already proven their disdain for private school vouchers in 2018, after Save Our Schools Arizona successfully won enough signatures to put a law expanding the program’s eligibility to all public school students on the ballot. An overwhelming 65% of voters cast their ballots against the law, and it wasn’t until 2022 that Republicans were able to pass a universal expansion opening up the voucher program to all students, whether they had ever stepped foot in a public school. 

Garcia waved away concerns that Arizona voters might choose to approve the renewal even over their objections, given the broad popularity of initiatives that increase public school funding. The 2024 Arizona Voters’ Agenda survey estimated that as much as 79% of voters support boosting K-12 funding. Garcia said that clarifying who’s left out of the renewal will ensure it’s defeated, because Arizonans want to value real impacts for their local public schools over general increases in funding. 

“We have the ability to explain to voters that ‘your favorite teacher may not get this raise,’” she said.

The original GOP plan strictly allocates the new funding in Prop. 123’s extension for teacher pay raises, precluding school districts from raising pay for other school personnel that public education advocates say are equally deserving of salary increases, including librarians, school bus drivers and counselors. And because the plan makes pay raises dependent on performance reviews, not every teacher would see their pay increase, either. Garcia pointed out that many junior teachers who are still learning how to navigate their new roles will miss out. 

But while the goal is to kill the GOP-led bid to enshrine private school vouchers in the state constitution, there doesn’t appear to be any alternative to ensure that the funding in Prop. 123 that school districts have long relied on is preserved. Garcia on Tuesday said she isn’t aware of any citizen initiatives in the works. Democratic lawmakers have proposed clean extensions in both legislative chambers, but the Republican majority has refused to give them a hearing. 

The only option left for teachers and public education proponents is to call on Republicans to stick to their original plan, which itself was only grudgingly supported. 

“I am standing here today asking my Republican colleagues to uphold their oaths to the constitution, in more ways than one,” said Sen. Catherine Miranda, D-Phoenix. “Prioritize funding for our public schools, the ones we are constitutionally obligated to fund to ensure each and every child (has) a high quality, free and appropriate education. Secondly, be honest and transparent in your efforts to extend Prop. 123 — don’t hide protections for private school vouchers in a plan, don’t disguise these efforts as school choice.”

“We call on lawmakers to stop using Arizona’s 1.1 million public students and their teachers as a bargaining chip in a political game,” added Kirsch. “Voters deserve a fair choice and if lawmakers truly support education, they must respect the will of the people, separate the measures, stop the privatization push and invest in Arizona’s public schools.”

For now, it appears unlikely that Republicans will reverse course. Love Your School, a pro-school choice group, announced a news conference on May 19 about the “expansion” of Prop. 123 featuring Sen. JD Mesnard, R-Chandler, who is championing the amendment that would add ESAs to the Arizona Constitution.

***UPDATE: This story was updated to include a new date for the Love Your School press conference, which was originally scheduled for May 7 but was rescheduled for May 19 after this story was published.