Public Funding for Public Schools | Arizona Education Association

For decades, Arizona's lawmakers have underfunded our public schools resulting in a teacher shortage crisis. The pandemic has only made this situation worse. Vouchers divert funding from our neighborhood public schools into private religious schools with no accountability. Arizona's voters have been clear that they want to invest in public education and they do not support vouchers or funding two separate education systems.

Take Action

Instead of supporting our teachers and students, lawmakers are wanting to expand the state's private school voucher program, which is full of waste, fraud and abuse. If passed, Senate Bill 1657 would expand eligibility to:

Children of veterans and first responders,
Students who participated in the Governor Ducey's COVID relief-funded vouchers,
Students who meet free or reduced-price lunch eligibility,
Students who go to a fully Title 1 school,
Students who live in a school district seeing enrollment growth to the point where they need a new school built,
Students in districts that spend any money over the aggregate expenditure limit, and
Students who participate in an Arizona Online Instruction (AOI) program

In addition, this bill takes $25 million from the Classroom Site Fund, known as Prop 301, which was passed by voters to give public school teachers pay raises.