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We have another major hurdle facing public education coming up in just over a month. In 1980, concerned by some of the budget increases other states were pushing through, Arizona legislators developed a cap on public education fund spending. It is called the aggregate expenditure limit (AEL).
For those of you that are familiar with town or city politics, this is very similar to the expenditure limitations placed on towns that must be overridden by voters. For those of you not familiar, it is basically a cap on the amount of money that public districts can spend. It is approximately 15% less than what schools and the state have already budgeted to spend for the current school year. Charter schools are exempt from this.
If this is not overturned for this year by a 2/3 vote of Arizona legislature, beginning April 1, public school districts will need to cut approximately 30% of THIS year’s budget to comply (30% because we already half way through the year). This is money that the schools ALREADY HAVE but will basically have to leave sitting in their bank accounts and not be allowed to spend.
With cuts like these, our rural public school districts will be decimated. Larger districts like Tucson or Phoenix Union are looking to have to cut tens of millions. It would almost certainly mean cuts to services, extra curriculars, staff layoffs, and even school shutdowns.
Superior would have to cut over $475,000.
- Ray — over $515,000
- Hayden-Winkelman– $680,000
- Mammoth/San Manuel– over $750,000
- Oracle Elementary District-$900,000
- Miami —almost $1.7 million
- San Carlos– $1.8 million
- CVIT– over $260,000
My students in Globe would lose almost $2 million dollars
Remember—These cuts would not save the state money. The money would be sitting in the schools’ coffers, just waiting to be spent.
Some have said that there’s no way legislators or the Governor would let this happen, that they will get too much pressure from the public. However, many people I have talked to don’t even know about this, so how can we pressure them if the word isn’t out there. That’s where I’m asking for your help.
- Please email or call your legislators and tell them that they MUST support overturning the Aggregate Expenditure Limit on public education. Tell them your story about your kids, your community, and what the public schools in your community mean to them. If you don’t know who your local legislators are you can find them here
https://www.azleg.gov/findmylegislator/
- Please share this information with other Arizonans in your circles. We have to get the word out about this.
Lastly, thank you all for your support of my career, my colleagues, but most of our students. Nobody will be more heavily impacted by this than them.
/s/ Aja DeZeeuw
Resident of Superior
Globe High School Counselor
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