Tell your legislators: Stop playing games with education funding

To me the RED in Red for Ed stands for STOP playing games with our kids’ education. In his budget game, Governor Ducey moves money around like pawns from one department to another. He moved millions from infrastructure (fixing our roads!) and AHCCCS (healthcare for those who can least afford it) to pay for modest raises for teachers.

His first year in office, Gov. Ducey cut $100 million from education to give big tax cuts to corporations. Republicans claim that the tax cuts are necessary to get employers to come to Arizona. But companies are made of people with families. What company wants to come to Arizona when education spending is ranked 49th in the nation? 

Arizona students are being forced to attend class in crumbling school buildings and study from outdated and damaged text books. There are even reports of schools without working air conditioners! Our students deserve to learn in an environment that will allow them to succeed, without making our underpaid teachers pay for their own supplies. 

Our educators have some reasonable demands:

• 20% raise for all teaching and certified staff
• competitive wages for all classified staff
• return school funding to 2008 levels
• no new tax cuts until AZ per-pupil spending reaches national average
• yearly raises until AZ reaches the national average! 

Don't let Gov. Ducey treat his budget for education like monopoly money. Tell our legislators to accept the teachers' demands and work with the Democrats to come up with a feasible plan to fund education now and in the future.

Legislators to call:

Vince Leach: 602-926-3106

Jill Norgard: 602-926-3140

David Livingston: : 602-926-4178

Regina Cobb: 602-926-3126

JD Mesnard: 602-926-4481

TJ Shope: 602-926-3012

John Allen: 602-926-4916


May 3, 2018 Video Update here