How State Legislators
Voted on School
Funding in 2017


AZ Schools Now is a coalition of dedicated volunteers, educators, parents, school board members, faith-based leaders, and children’s advocates focused on reinvesting in Arizona’s public schools. Collectively, the constituencies of the AZ Schools Now partner organizations represent some of Arizona’s most ardent and invested supporters of public education.

Though Arizona voters are united in their strong support for reinvestments in public schools, our state legislature has been slow to respond. Additional education funding for fiscal year 2018, combined with the voter-approved inflationary funding from Proposition 123, still leaves public schools with $1.1 billion less in funding than a decade ago.

This guide summarizes the voting records of all current state senators and representatives on key public school funding legislation in 2017. These votes include:

  • An expansion of taxpayer-funded ESA voucher subsidies for private and religious education
  • A state budget that does nothing to move the needle on the growing teacher shortage crisis.
  • Select education investments for a group of excelling schools that focused mainly on high-income neighborhoods in Maricopa and Pima counties
  • Additional tax cuts for big corporations and families at all income levels that drain funding away from public education

To ensure progress in the success of Arizona’s public schools and its students, AZ Schools Now champions investments for three specific goals:

  1. Expand and stabilize our workforce of qualified teachers through competitive compensation and professional support
  2. Provide critical tools for classrooms with supplies and updated textbooks and technology
  3. Repair and maintain school facilities to give students safe, clean and functional places to learn
K-12 Education still $1.1 billion less than FY 2008

2017 Voting Record on Bills Impacting
Public School Funding

SB 1431 – Expansion of private school vouchers (ESAs)
Expands access to vouchers (ESAs), which will further divert resources from the general fund in order to subsidize the tuition of students who attend private schools. Following a four-year phase-in period, all students in the state would be eligible for a private school voucher. Places a cap on the number of ESAs that can be awarded per school year, but that cap could be removed by a future legislature. Sponsored by Senator Lesko.
Senate vote: Ayes: 16 Nays: 13 Not Voting: 1. House vote: Ayes: 31 Nays: 28 Not Voting: 1
Signed by Governor Ducey
AZ Schools Now opposed: No votes earn 40 points.

SB1522/HB2537 – FY2018 State Budget
This is the main budget bill which provides for many of the appropriations for operating state government for FY2018. With Arizona’s public schools still receiving $1.1 billion less in annual funding than they received in 2008, this budget’s net new funding for public education of about $32 per student does very little to address the many needs of Arizona’s resource-starved public schools. The 1 percent bonus for teachers amounts to roughly $450 next year and is far too little to reduce the teacher shortage. Sponsored by Senator Yarbrough (SB1522) and Representative Mesnard (HB2537).
Senate vote: Ayes: 17 Nays: 13 Not Voting: 0. House vote: Ayes: 35 Nays: 24 Not Voting: 1.
Signed by Governor Ducey
AZ Schools Now opposed: No votes earn 10 points.

HB2528 – Income tax cuts
Increases the personal income tax exemption and requires the exemption to be adjusted and increased each year based on the Consumer Price Index, resulting in a cost to the general fund of $6.8 million in FY 2018 and growing to $16.3 million in FY 2020. Annual costs to the general fund will increase thereafter, providing less revenue to invest in public education in future years. Sponsored by Representative Mesnard.
Senate vote: Ayes: 19 Nays: 11 Not Voting: 0. House vote: Ayes: 38 Nays: 28 Not Voting: 1
Signed by Governor Ducey
AZ Schools Now opposed: No votes earn 20 points.

SB1530/HB2545 – FY2018 education budget items (not included in the main state budget bill)
This bill makes statutory changes necessary to implement the public education-related appropriations in the FY2018 budget. Among the provisions, it provides a $32 million bonus – the largest chunk of K-12 classroom investments – to a handful of excelling schools that are mainly located in high-income neighborhoods in Maricopa and Pima counties, while failing to meet many other critical needs like the repair of school buildings and buses, updated textbooks and technology and impactful, permanent teacher raises. Sponsored by Senator Yarbrough (SB1530) and Representative Mesnard (HB2545).
Senate vote: Ayes: 20 Nays: 10 House vote: Ayes: 31 Nays: 28 Not Voting: 1.
Signed by Governor Ducey
AZ Schools Now opposed: No votes earn 10 points.

SB1416 – Business tax cuts
Expands and continues various tax giveaways for businesses, including the continuation and expansion of a jobs tax credit that was set to expire and a research and development tax credit that otherwise would have been reduced. Continues a trend of the Arizona legislature cutting taxes and/or increasing credits every year but one since 1990, which has cost the general fund more than $2.2 billion in revenues – and more than double that amount when you adjust for inflation. These are funds that could otherwise be invested in state priorities like public education. Sponsored by Senator Pratt.
Senate vote: Ayes: 21 Nays: 8 Not Voting: 1. House vote: Ayes: 32 Nays: 21 Not Voting: 7
Signed by Governor Ducey
AZ Schools Now opposed: No votes earn 20 points.

We Can Do Better

These bills signed by Governor Ducey leave public schools with an alarming teacher shortage crisis, a $1.1 billion deficit in annual funding, tax policies draining away future revenues for education, and no plan to reinvest in public schools. However, many policy options to power reinvestment in public schools exist, and, in fact, a number of bills were introduced in that direction. Some of these never got a hearing; others received some consideration, but didn’t move to final passage. Here are some key examples:

  • Several bills were introduced to freeze the loss of funding to growing private school tax credits and to target the scholarships to the students most in need. Sponsors were Representative Coleman and Senator Brophy McGee and Representatives Friese and Fernandez.
  • Representatives Carter and Boyer sponsored a bill to restore $370 million that has been wiped out in classroom funding each year.
  • Representative Engel and others introduced a bill to increase the Proposition 301 sales tax dedicated to education to 1 percent and to continue it beyond the current sunset date.
  • Senator Otondo and Representative Epstein proposed amendments to the budget to appropriate funding for a 4 percent teacher raise.

AZ Schools Now joins parents and business leaders across the state in calling for policies like these to reinvest in public schools.

How Arizona State Senators Voted

[table id=1 /]

NV = Not voting or absent
0* = not voting for an unexcused absence, this is counted as zero in the score

How Arizona State Representatives Voted

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NV = Not voting or absent
0* = not voting for an unexcused absence, this is counted as zero in the score