PHOENIX – The Arizona Education Association released the following statement from AEA President Marisol Garcia urging legislators to vote NO on Representative Gress’ HB2800.
“Most Arizonans agree: regardless of who they are or where they live, all kids deserve a great education, one that instills in them a lifelong love of learning and prepares them for the future. To make that vision a reality, we need to address our state’s educator retention crisis. Unfortunately, some of our legislators are more interested in political games than in taking real action to keep qualified and talented educators in our schools.
HB2800 is a deeply unserious proposal. It’s full of obvious flaws:
- It fails to cover the full costs to districts of raising educator salaries. When these costs are taken into account, it will actually cost districts money–necessitating layoffs or cuts to things like textbooks, field trips, or sports and arts programs.
- It is one-time funding. If the state’s budget takes a hit due to a recession, as is possible at any time, districts will be unable to adjust teacher salaries and will be forced to lay off staff instead.
- It excludes tens of thousands of valuable educators who are vital to children’s learning – from counselors to special education paraprofessionals.
- It utterly fails to deal with the underlying issues affecting public education, including the school funding cap (also known as the aggregate expenditure limit or AEL), the draining of public funds to pay for private schools through vouchers, and the ongoing consequences of decade-long underinvestment in our schools.
Enough with the political posturing. Legislators who genuinely wish to support educators and invest in public education should vote NO on HB2800 and focus on real proposals to address our educator retention crisis.”
