Shame on the 21 far-right legislators who voted to shut down Arizona's schools

Note: Column has been updated to include Senate vote.

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Good news, kids. (Or maybe bad news, depending upon your perspective.)

The Arizona Legislature has voted to allow your schools to remain open for the rest of the school year.

This, despite the best efforts of 21 far-right Republicans who wanted to slam shut classroom doors across the state.

When it counted, 26 Republicans came through, joining with Democrats to keep nearly one million children at their desks.

“This effort is aimed at making sure that schools stay open and that students are priorities,” said Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix. “We believe that kids need to be in the classroom, not locked out of it.”

Schools have the cash. They can't spend it

Thanks to the size of the tire tracks over the backs of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, Arizona’s parents, teachers and anyone who cares about public education will soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

The fact that it was even in question – that some of our leaders would stoop to holding children hostage to their demands – should tell you all you need to know about this year’s Legislature.

'Catastrophe' looms:Legislature may lift school spending limit

Lawmakers have known since last summer that the schools were facing a March 1 deadline to avoid disaster. Unlike charter schools, traditional district schools are limited in how much money they can spend, even if the money’s already in the bank.

The aggregate expenditure limit was set by voters in 1980 and is adjusted every year to account for inflation and enrollment. But declines in enrollment, major expenses never contemplated 43 years ago – along with a decision by our leaders a few years to move previously exempted funds under the spending cap – have pushed school budgets to that ceiling in recent years.

If the cap isn’t waived by March 1, $1.4 billion will disappear from Arizona’s public schools on April 1. That is 17.5% of their total annual budget – or put another way, 70% of the funding left for remaining two months of the school year.

The money will still be there. They just won't be able to spend it.

Shut down schools because some are failing?

State Superintendent Tom Horne has urged the Legislature to waive the cap, noting that two-thirds of teachers would have to have to be laid off.

“That would be an unbelievable catastrophe,” he said during a House hearing on the bill last week.

A catastrophe that 21 Republican legislators apparently have no problem wishing on our kids.

The holdouts say they believe public schools are mismanaging their money and failing our kids, citing test scores that show an appalling percentage of kids can’t read or do math at grade level.

Rep. Justin Heap, R-Mesa, was among the no’s, calling for systemic reform and greater accountability before the schools are allowed to spend another dime.

“What has Arizona received for its investment in education?” he asked. “What we’ve received is failing schools where less than a third of students are proficient in math and reading.”

So the answer is ... penalize the kids?

Funny, I remember a time – just two years ago – when Republicans were screaming about closed schools and the disastrous impact on children. They were right.

Reform is good, but not if it hurts kids

There is certainly nothing wrong with looking for ways to improve the public schools that the vast, vast majority of Arizona students attend. (You know, by doing something other than passing legislation to regulate pronouns and fine schools that don't properly display the U.S. flag in every classroom.) 

Clearly, something is wrong when two-thirds of our students can’t do grade-level math and 60% are not proficient in reading -- never mind that Arizona's schools rank just under to the national average in both subjects, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

But to think that wholesale, systemic reform can happen in the 21 days before the spending cap kicks in and the kids are inevitably kicked to the curb?

That may make hearts go pitty-pat at the far right fringe of the Republican Party, the people who love to hate the public schools.

But for the nearly 1 million children who attend Arizona’s public schools, this is not an answer.

Credit to Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, for going to bat for Arizona's school districts and sponsoring House Concurrent Resolution 2001, to waive the limit.

“This money was in the budget and I just don’t understand how we can limit public district K-12 schools with caps when … (state) agencies, charter schools and others receiving billions of the dollars, they have no cap," he said.

Cook noted that 90% of the children in his legislative district attend public schools, Luckily for them, he wasn’t about to abandon them.

Unlike some people.

Who voted against raising the limit?

These House Republicans voted against raising the school spending limit: Neal Carter of Queen Creek, Joseph Chaplik of Scottsdale, Lupe Diaz of Benson, Liz Harris of Chandler, Justin Heap of Mesa, Laurin Hendrix of Gilbert, Rachel Jones of Tucson, Alexander Kolodin of Scottsdale, Cory McGarr of Marana, Steve Montenegro of Goodyear, Barbara Parker of Mesa, Jacqueline Parker of Mesa, Beverly Pingerelli of Peoria and Austin Smith of Wittmann.

These Senate Republicans voted against raising the school spending limit: Frank Carroll of Sun City, David Farnsworth of Mesa, Jake Hoffman of Queen Creek, Anthony Kern of Glendale, Wendy Rogers of Flagstaff, Janae Shamp of Surprise and Justine Wadsack of Tucson.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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