做厙勛圖

Arizona consistently ranks among the last in the country in per-pupil spending on public education. But with Democrats retaining the Governor's Office, and potentially taking control of both chambers in the Legislature for the first time in 60 years, some education leaders are hopeful that could change.

Beth Lewis, the executive director of Save Our Schools Arizona, a statewide advocacy group that supports increased spending on public schools, said public school funding was not a priority for the Legislature over the past decade. Most moderate Republicans who supported public schools were ousted by lawmakers aligned with the MAGA movement, who have instead prioritized private education, she said.

"Our neighborhood public schools are shutting down. They have completely failed to meet the mark. We're 49th in funding," Lewis said.

Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, a statewide labor union representing over 20,000 public school employees, said she woke up "in shock" on Wednesday morning by the blue wave that washed over Arizona.

Garcia, a former teacher, said she didn't know what she was getting into when she moved to Arizona to teach nearly 20 years ago.

"I moved here from another state where school funding was the norm and the teaching profession was respected and students had unlimited opportunities," Garcia said.

ESA reforms could come with new Arizona Legislature

The results of the election likely will create renewed focus on the state's controversial Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which allows families to use public dollars on alternatives to public education. The program has remained one of the most divisive education issues in the state for years and was a major talking point in the campaigns of the state superintendent candidates.

Save Our Schools Arizona, along with the Arizona Education Association, spearheaded the Protect Education Act in 2026. The ballot initiative ultimately never made it to voters after the Goldwater Institute challenged its signatures in court. If passed, it would have put limits on the ESA program, such as an income cap on who was allowed to participate.

Tom Horne, the current superintendent of public instruction who lost in the primary election, has supported providing guardrails on the program. He said it's largely the reason why he lost.

But Horne said he doesn't support an income cap because he's afraid it will continue to get lowered.

Jenny Clark, an advocate for school choice in Arizona, similarly said that a family who makes $100,000 per year is not necessarily wealthy. Clark said she's concerned that the program will get worn away to the point where families enrolled in it will have no choice but to return to public schools.

"My hope is that the new leadership in Arizona will recognize how many students are thriving because of school choice in Arizona, and they will prioritize other objectives they may have in the Democratic party," Clark said.

Moving forward, Lewis said a Democratic trifecta in state government could provide an opportunity for restrictions to the program, and the Education Forward Act could still provide a roadmap to lawmakers.

"We had over 400,000 voters sign on in 14 weeks. That is a really crystal-clear mandate; I think Republicans should have just listened to it and let voters have their say," Lewis said.

Outcome of Proposition 320 to restrict school funding still uncertain

Despite early polling showing strong support, Proposition 320, which would have required districts to allocate at least 60% of their budgets to direct instructional expenses, was narrowly rejected by voters in the latest unofficial results.

Jimmy Arwood, a spokesperson for the Arizona School Boards Association, said initial polling showed the proposition passing by 50 percentage points. The association, along with the Arizona Education Association and Save Our Schools Arizona, all took public stances against the initiative.

If passed, the measure would require districts to allocate at least 60% of their budgets to direct instructional expenses, most notably teacher pay. But it left uncertainty as to where that money would come from.

Ryan Mills, a spokesperson for the Goldwater Institute, said the group was waiting to comment. The Goldwater Institute was a major backer of the proposition, arguing that school districts are spending too much money on "questionable and inefficient expenditures."

During a September debate, Chris Thomas, director of legal strategy for education policy at the Goldwater Institute, said the ballot initiative would attract higher-quality teachers by increasing their pay.

But Rich Nickel, president of Education Forward Arizona, which publicly opposed the ballot measure, said the ballot proposal was written in a way that was deceptive to voters.

The measure also raised questions about the potential to put the jobs of non-certified staff ��� such as bus drivers or electricians ��� at risk if school districts had to reallocate their budgets. There's no way to increase teacher pay without creating new funding, Garcia said.

George Barnes, the superintendent of Balsz School District in east Phoenix, said neither he nor the governing board members took a public stance on the measure. But Barnes said the responsibility to ensure voters actually understood the proposition largely fell on public education advocates. While Barnes said he came across some voters who thought teachers needed higher pay, it wasn't clear to them that the pie wasn't getting any larger, he said.

"The proposition narrative was at one point very simply: take money from one hand, and give it to the teachers," Barnes said.

While speaking to voters, both Nickel and Lewis said views would often quickly change once voters learned about the potential trade-offs.

"It was a very quick pivot, but it did require voter education," Lewis said.

Arizona educators express optimism for school funding

Garcia said she remains hopeful that Gov. Katie Hobbs and the next Legislature will examine ways to create new school funding. In addition to ESA limits, Garcia said she wants to see reform generally of tax breaks offered to Arizonans. Many benefit a minority of Arizonans while the rest of the state incurs the costs, she said.

"It makes the pie smaller. And so we need to increase the pie and make sure that working families aren't the ones that incur the cost," Garcia said.

Nickel and Garcia said they also hope to see renewed conversations about Proposition 123, which was approved by voters in 2016 but expired in 2025. The proposition increased annual distributions from the State Land Trust to public schools from 2.5% to 6.9% for 10 years, which amounted to about $300 million per year. Attempts to renew the proposition in 2024, 2025 and 2026 all fell through.

"Prop. 123 is a core piece of Arizona's K-12 funding puzzle," Nickel said.

The sunsetting of the measure means the state's general fund is backfilling much of that cost.

"We think that is a key piece of funding legislation that needs to be addressed very quickly," Nickel said.

Garcia said she's hopeful that the new Legislature prioritizes the state's education funding issues.

"We just cannot wait another day. We can't wait another legislative session, election cycle. We want to really put into practice some good policies, and I know the voters are with us," Garcia said.