First Week of Session is a Doozy
From the Governor calling school board members “school board bureaucrats” to a bill that seeks to prohibit districts from paying ASBA membership dues, to coming out of the gate targeting local curriculum decision-making, the first week of the AZ Legislature’s 2022 session has set a combative tone. Read on to see a summary of the State of the State and what’s in store for next week’s committees.
SB1011 Targets ASBA Directly
On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate Education Committee is set to hear Sen. Kelly Townsend’s SB1011 school board associations; membership; payment. It isn’t very long. In fact, here’s the entire thing:
A SCHOOL DISTRICT MAY NOT USE TAX MONIES TO PAY FOR MEMBERSHIP IN A STATE SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION OR A NATIONAL SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION.
The clear purpose of this bill is to silence the collective voice of governing board members across the state. For 70 years, ASBA has promoted the core tenets of school board governance—that elected school board members are best equipped to make decisions that align with community values, that each school board should retain the exclusive authority to manage its own budget, personnel, and curriculum, and that knowledgeable, effective school board members are critical to providing quality public education.
If you believe that ASBA has value, now is the time to speak up. If this bill is allowed to become law, the ability of school district boards to speak with one voice on issues like capital funding, accountability, public funding of private and religious schools will be gone. Do not allow the Legislative majority to retaliate against school boards for standing up and insisting that they be able to make the decisions that voters elected them to make. With this bill, they are telling you they know better than you and would prefer not to hear about it. Sign in to RTS and oppose SB1011 and contact the Legislators below and tell them to vote “no” on SB1011. Tell them why ASBA has value.
Boyer - Chair (602) 926-4173 PBOYER@azleg.gov
Shope – Vice Chair (602) 926-3012 TSHOPE@azleg.gov
Barto (602) 926-5766 NBARTO@azleg.gov
Gonzales (602) 926-3278 SGONZALES@azleg.gov
Gray (602) 926-5413 RGRAY@azleg.gov
Hatathlie 602) 926-5160 THATATHLIE@azleg.gov
Marsh (602) 926-3184 CMARSH@azleg.gov
Pace (602) 926-5760 TPACE@azleg.gov
Curriculum Wars, Round 2
Next week’s House Education agenda also includes HB2112, classroom instruction; race; ethnicity; sex, which is essentially an identical copy of the language that was included in last year’s budget, intended to restrict districts’ ability to teach certain ideas that opponents lump together under the heading of “critical race theory.” Often, complaints about “CRT” are more about fear of what *might* be going on in schools rather than what is actually going on. ASBA supports a very straightforward principle in this regard: it is the school board’s job to adopt curriculum. Students learn best when teachers, board members, administrators, and parents are able to come together and adopt a curriculum that meets AZ academic standards and serves the needs of the students in their particular district. That cannot happen if the Legislature insists on interfering in that process. Please sign in to RTS and oppose HB2112.
The State of Our State is Always Strong
On Monday afternon, Governor Ducey gave his final “State of the State” address in which he proclaimed, as he has every year and every governor has before him, that the “state of our state is strong.” During his hour-long speech, he presented few concrete policies that his office will be prioritizing this session. Here are a some of the Governor’s talking points:
Ducey touted Arizona as the #1 school choice state in the nation. He committed to expanding school choice options including home schooling and micro schools, increase the number of charter schools, and create new transportation models. He emphasized new school choice options for students of color and students in poverty, especially those attending poorly performing schools.
He emphasized that Arizona students should be taught to think critically, not be taught “Critical Race Theory.” He will require that everything a child is taught, including curriculum, assigned readings, and activities, be available online to search and review by parents and concerned community members.
Finally, in an attempt to address “learning loss” due to the pandemic, the Governor is launching a statewide summer learning camp focused on math, reading, and civics. The eight-week camp will be free to families and target students who scored below “proficient” on the statewide assessment, with priority given to students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Read more about the program here.
We will learn more about how he will address these priorities in his budget, released today.