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Oppose Taxpayer-Funded Giveaways to Private Schools
We’re continuing to watch several dozen bills of interest moving through the Legislature. The ones to speak out about this weekend are a slate of education attacks headed for committee on Tuesday.
School voucher expansions SB1131, SB1657, and SB1707 yet again expand the use of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which suck money out of public education and redistribute it to private and religious schools via tuition vouchers.
The bills are new but the argument against them is still the same. Funding religious schools with public dollars is unconstitutional. And funding private schools with tax dollars is an ineffective rip-off that mainly benefits education privateers.
We’ve put together an action form here. You can use it to contact committee members in as quick as a minute.
Bills in Committee Feb 7-8
We’re continuing to watch several dozen bills of interest moving through Legislative committees. Here’s the full list of what’s on our radar next week:
In House Health & Human Services: Monday, 2/7/22:
- HB2086: schools cannot require COVID or Human Papillomavirus vaccines
Committee members:
Kelli Butler (D) – (602) 926-5156 / kbutler@azleg.gov
Joseph Chaplik (R) – (602) 926-3436 / jchaplik@azleg.gov
Alma Hernandez (D) – (602) 926-3136 / ahernandez@azleg.gov
Steve Kaiser (R) – (602) 926-3314 / skaiser@azleg.gov
Joanne Osborne (R) – (602) 926-3181 / josborn@azleg.gov
Beverly Pingerelli (R) – (602) 926-3396 / bpingerelli@azleg.gov
Pam P. Hannley (D) – (602) 926-4848 / ppowershannley@azleg.gov
Amish Shah (D) – (602) 926-3280 / ashah@azleg.gov
Justin Wilmeth (R) – (602) 926-5044 / jwilmeth@azleg.gov
In Senate Government: Monday, 2/7/22:
- SB1058: banning drive-up voting; ballot boxes
- SB1298: mask mandate prohibition
- SB1357: restrictions on voting machines
- SB1358: mandating that ballots must be counted at precincts instead of counties (facilitating actual election fraud)
- SB1359: all election workers must have unique usernames and passwords (so that individuals can be targeted more easily with election fraud accusations)
- SB1360: expanding access to polls granted to “election observers” (facilitating voter intimidation)
- SB1362: requiring same-day tabulation; more poll workers/electors
- SB1380: monthly scrubbing of voter rolls
- SB1404: restrictions on early voting (would particularly impact people with disabilities)
- SB1457: restrictions on voting machines
- SB1474: all elections must be in person
- SB1477: monthly update of felony convictions records (so as to restrict election access)
Committee members:
Sonny Borrelli (R) – (602) 926-5051 / sborelli@azleg.gov
Sally Ann Gonzales (D) – (602) 926-3278 / sgonzales@azleg.gov
Theresa Hatathlie (D) – (602) 926-5160 / thatathlie@azleg.gov
Warren Petersen (R) – (602) 926-4136 / wpetersen@azleg.gov
Martin Quezada (D) – (602) 926-5911 / mquezada@azleg.gov
Wendy Rogers (R) – (602) 926-3042 / wrogers@azleg.gov
Kelly Townsend (R) – (602) 926-4467 / ktownsend@azleg.gov
In Senate Education Tuesday, 2/8/22:
- SB1131, SB1657, & SB1707: expansions to the state’s school voucher program.
- SB1412: lowering standards for who can be hired as a substitute teacher
- SB1519: opening the door for defunding special education
Committee members:
Nancy Barto (R) – (602) 926-5766 / nbarto@azleg.gov
Paul Boyer (R) – (602) 926-4173 / pboyer@azleg.gov
Sally Ann Gonzales (D) – (602) 926-3278 / sgonzales@azleg.gov
Rick Gray (R) – (602) 926-5413 / rgray@azleg.gov
Theresa Hatathlie (D) – (602) 926-5160 / thatathlie@azleg.gov
Christine Marsh (D) – (602) 926-3184 / cmarsh@azleg.gov
Tyler Pace (R) – (602) 926-5760 / tpace@azleg.gov
Thomas Shope (R) – (602) 926-3012 / tshope@azleg.gov
What you can do:
- Contact the committee members listed above before the day of the hearing
- If you are a Request to Speak user, sign in against the above bills. (Note: RTS is moving very slowly, so prepared to be patient.)
We will provide an additional update at the beginning next week for bills being heard Wednesday and beyond.
In Solidarity,
-The Secular AZ Team
A big expansion of the school voucher program is headed for a crucial vote
SB1452 once again expands the amount of public dollars given to private and religious schools.
SB1452 makes numerous small changes to state law to further broaden the reach of its controversial “Empowerment Scholarship Account” (school voucher) program.
Essentially, SB1452 loosens the criteria for who receives vouchers. It loosens restrictions on who can vouchers alongside the state’s similar tuition tax credit program. It also would siphon more low-income students from public schools rather than adequately fund those schools.
Why is this a bad thing?
- Vouchers disproportionately benefit the wealthy: the cost of going to private schools is much higher than that of going to public schools. Even with vouchers in hand, the majority of impoverished families can’t afford it. Families that are already financially secure, meanwhile, get a handout.
- This handout comes at the expense of struggling public school districts: When a public school loses a student to the voucher program, it loses thousands of dollars that help pay for teachers, building, and classroom costs. These schools continue to have the same overhead with less revenue.
- Data shows private schools perform far worse than public schools academically, with less oversight.
- Vouchers violate our rights to religious freedom by using public funds for religious indoctrination. Vouchers largely benefit religious schools, some of which teach extremist dogma and discriminate against students for religious reasons.