Everyone knows that Texas turned blue in Election Day, but did you know that Arizona turned blue? Governor Kate Hobbs was re-elected Governor. And remarkably, Democrats won a majority of both houses of the Legislature!
For years, the rightwing Governor and likeminded Legislature expanded vouchers, despite the fact that the public endorsed a referendum against vouchers in 2019. The Koch brothers’ machine encouraged the Republican governor and Legislature to pursue privatization of the schools. There was no stopping the Republicans’ determination to defund public schools and to send public money to private schools, home schools, religious schools, with minimal accountability for how that money was spent.
Save Our Schools Arizona reported the details about the Democratic sweep in their state.
Save Our Schools Arizona reported:
We’ve always known this was possible. Alongside YOU – our volunteers, supporters, and coalition partners – we put in the work day after day for 10 years to achieve this goal. Despite defeat (after defeat after defeat), we all dusted ourselves off time and time again to protect the right of all Arizona students to have accessible, high quality, well resourced, inclusive public schools. Some days, it felt impossible to keep going – but we collectively picked each other up and kept going with a dream in our hearts that better was possible. This week, that dream was realized. Thank you.
👏 Now, we have a state legislature that will invest and prioritize children, educators, families, and public schools and put major ESA reforms – like those in the Protect Education Act – into law. Public education advocates now hold a 20-10 supermajority in the State Senate, and a robust 37-23 majority in the State House. It’s time to GET THINGS DONE FOR KIDS 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
👏 Voters statewide also rejected Prop 320 – a measure that would have imposed an arbitrary and impossible mandate of 60% “direct classroom spending,” with stiff penalties for districts who couldn’t meet the mark. Prop. 320 would have had disastrous impacts on public school budgets for special education, nurses, counselors, food services, transportation, literacy coaches, and so much more. We are so grateful to our coalition partners across the state who worked to defeat this devastating measure – teamwork made the dream work, and we are so grateful AZ voters saw through this deceptive ballot measure put on the ballot by anti-public school Goldwater Institute and pushed by former Gov. Ducey and newly rejected state Rep. Matt Gress.
👏 Voters elected lifelong educator Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz as Superintendent of Public Instruction – beating MAGA acolyte Kimberly Yee and replacing Supt. Tom Horne. Dr. Ruiz will be a champion for public school students and educators, and will work to stop the off-the-rails abuse of the ESA voucher program! We also hear some of her immediate priorities are to take down Horne’s “teacher snitch” line and take PragerU off the ADE website 👏👏👏 It’s a new day for public education!
👏 Arizona also voters elected pro-public education champions up and down the ballot, from Gov. Hobbs, Attorney General Mayes, Sec. of State Fontes, and newly elected Treasurer Nick Mansour, who has pledged to increase transparency of ESA voucher funds to help eliminate wasteful spending. Most of our #PublicSchoolProud school board candidates sailed to victory, and MAGA’s presence is greatly diminished across AZ school boards!
👏 Finally, voters passed ~75% local school funding measures (bonds and overrides) statewide – 37 out of 50 measures – though ballots are still being counted and could change the final number. We are crossing our fingers and toes for districts that are still awaiting final news, as the success of these measures means so very much for students, educators, and families 🤞
We are deeply disheartened by the passage of Prop. 318 😡which attacks trans youth, setting up deeply unfair and discriminatory rules for kids and sports teams. The measure seeks to convert teachers into the gender police and lays the ground for endless lawsuits against families and schools. At SOSAZ, we work to protect all children, and the state of AZ has failed some of our most precious children this week.
Public Education WINS: In AZ and across the country, candidates who boldly championed public education WON. They won BIG and in places they were told they couldn’t win. In Texas, James Talarico was elected Senator and Gina Hinojosa was elected governor – and both ran on an unabashedly pro-public education, anti-voucher platform. As Gov-elect Hinojosa said in her acceptance speech, “The days of treating our public schools like they’re for sale are over” 🔥🔥🔥
In Arizona, deep-pocketed privatizers have tried to discredit, defund, and dismantle our public schools – but the voters are on to them, and gone are the Republican lawmakers and candidates who went along with these attacks on our children and communities. There are many lessons to be learned there, but the primary one is this: Arizonans LOVE our public schools. They want teachers and staff to be paid their worth. They want kids to have accessible, high quality schools in their neighborhoods. And no amount of voucher lobby money or shady politics is going to reverse that. Let’s goooooooooooooooooooo, Arizona!!!
WE DID IT!!! Your contributions propelled us to victory, funding our community organizers, flyers, social media graphics and ads, ballot guides, and extensive outreach to voters.
Please fuel our grassroots work with a celebratory donation 👉
We are about to go into one of the busiest (and most productive!) seasons in our history, as we work with this newly formed pro-public education legislature and wide K-12 coalitions to pass meaningful legislation to benefit our kids, our educators, our schools, and the future of our state.
Sound easy? Not so fast…
Your support over the years has allowed us to educate the public on the out-of-control $1 billion ESA voucher program and its devastating impacts on public schools to the forefront of public discourse in Arizona — where it belongs. Vouchers are not only unaccountable, but are designed to wreak havoc on and ultimately shut down public education.
Now that we’ve helped to change the balance of power, it’s time to start leading with real policy, grassroots lobbying, and organizing communities to ensure every impacted voice is represented.
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Here are some other easy actions you can take:
- Sign up for a Community Action Team (CAT) (NEW Region sign ups!): Central & South Phoenix, East Valley, Northeast Valley (Scottsdale/PV), Northern Arizona, Pima County, Pinal County, Rural Southern Arizona, West Valley & North Phoenix, and Yuma County! Your local coordinators will help you with using Request to Speak and contacting your lawmakers.
- Request a presentation of our updated and fully refreshed SOSAZ Education Arizona Roadshow HERE
- Sign up to automatically receive the SOSAZ Legislative Weekly Report HERE
