Category: State Budget

Children and Family Victories this Legislative Session and in the Arizona Budget

Arizona’s Governor and a bipartisan group of legislators came together to pass the state budget, which starts on July 1. The Arizona State Legislature also ended the legislative session. Children’s Action Alliance (CAA) applauds Arizona’s investment in early childhood, education, health, and family supports, while recognizing there is still more to be done.   

Early Learning 

In a historic win, CAA is thrilled with three important early childhood investments that keep children, families, child care providers, and rural communities in mind. This state budget includes two out of three of CAA’s 2025 legislative early childhood priorities: increasing access to child care and making it more affordable for families.  

Arizona made the largest state investment in over fifteen years, with almost $50 million in state General Funds towards addressing issues with child care: 

  • Expand quality options for children by supporting investments that make child care more affordable for families 
    • ▪ In the largest appropriation since 2009, the Child Care Assistance Program receives $44.9 million. This appropriation is expected to help at least half of the families who have been on the waitlist to access quality child care. This was CAA’s top budget priority.  
    • ▪ The budget also included a proposal from Governor Hobbs’ Bright Futures AZ initiatives for a $3 million appropriation to support an out-of-school grant program (youth ages 5-12) for eligible families. Thirty percent of these funds are reserved for rural communities.  
  • Increase the number of quality child care facilities in rural and underserved communities by investing in child care construction projects 
    • ▪ Rural Arizona wins with many of the child care investments included in the Arizona budget. In addition to the funds set aside for rural areas for the out-of-school grant program, $1.5 million was also approved to build a child development center in the Town of Taylor, a rural community in northern Arizona.  

While these measures are a significant step, many of these investments were inadequate for what is desperately needed. The Child Care Assistance Program still needs more funding for the waitlist as thousands of families make the tough decision on how to balance work and afford child care, and to also consider provider reimbursement rates and quality enhancement initiatives.  

CAA and our partners are committed to an Arizona where our families, children, child care providers, and businesses feel supported amidst the climbing costs of child care. CAA will continue prioritizing the accessibility and affordability of child care in the next legislative session. 

K-12 Education 

All students deserve a quality education that promotes their health and overall well-being. To do this, Arizona delivered a few needed solutions for schools with students in low-income communities and with anti-hunger initiatives. CAA applauds the investments in our public schools.  

  • Provide additional funding for schools 
    • ▪ In a much-needed win for our schools, $37 million was appropriated to reinstate the opportunity weight, along with additional assistance to districts in the amount of $29 million. This additional funding recognizes that students living in low-income communities with systemic barriers have greater opportunity to succeed academically with additional support.   
    • ▪ Although Prop 123 was not renewed, Arizona is required to backfill the amount that was originally generated from the state land trust to public schools. This amount includes almost $300 million in General Fund dollars.  
    • ▪ The budget addressed the Aggregate Expenditure Limit for two years, allowing school districts to allocate their approved budgets.
  • Prevent child hunger through school meals 
    • ▪ The $3.8 million amount that was included in the HB2213 appropriation for free school meals is essential to ensure that copays for school meals are not an obstacle for eligible children. This measure had overwhelming bipartisan support and was a CAA budget priority sent to the Governor and legislators.    

Investment in K-12 funding has numerous positive impacts on both individuals and society. It leads to increased academic achievement and improved graduation rates, ultimately creating a more skilled and educated workforce that boosts economic growth. However, Arizona consistently ranks low in terms of K-12 funding.   

Next year, the Arizona State Legislature and the Governor’s Office must find an agreement to renew Prop 123 for funding for Arizona’s schools. Arizona cannot afford to continue backfilling the amount with limited General Fund dollars. Our children and public schools deserve more.  

Health Care and Nutrition 

Protecting AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid Program, and food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at both the state and federal level, are top CAA’s priorities. Governor Hobbs and the bipartisan group of legislators preserved strong health and nutrition services for our children and families. 

  • At the state level, Arizona saw harmful proposals that would have restricted food choices for families who participate in SNAP, which was prevented with a veto by Governor Hobbs of HB2165. 
  • There were bills proposing to cut over $100 million from AHCCCS (SB1470) and adding wasteful administrative hurdles (HB2926, HB2449, HB2953). These bills were stopped in the Legislature (HB2926 and HB2953) or by a veto (HB2449). 
    • ▪ The proposed reductions in AHCCCS funding would have caused many Arizonans to lose their health care. They also risked destabilizing Arizona’s health care system and causing a significant cost shift to Arizonans, local employers, and small businesses.  

Protecting AHCCCS and SNAP at the state level was especially critical as we continue to face serious threats to the future of Medicaid and SNAP at the federal level. The state budget also made positive health investments in Arizona, specifically our workforce, parent caregivers, and rural communities.   

  • Protect families  
    • ▪ The Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) provides critical services for children and adults in need of specialized care. Arizona expanded a program to allow parents to be caregivers, which provides needed support for families. DDD required an additional $122 million for costs in the current budget, which was funded after a lengthy battle. This is critically important funding for Arizona’s families. 
  • Expand school-based health services in rural Arizona 
    • ▪ Health care services delivered in schools are an opportunity to meet children where they are, in a setting where they spend most of their time. School-based health services are especially important in low-income and rural communities where access to health care services is limited or difficult to access. CAA appreciates the $2.5 million investment in the Rural Arizona School Nurse Access Program, which aims to increase the number of school nurses in rural and underserved areas of our state. 

CAA continues to fight major cuts to AHCCCS and SNAP at the federal level, which risks stripping many Arizonans of their health care coverage and food security, as well as destabilizing the health care system in Arizona. We look forward to continuing our efforts to protect and expand health care in Arizona, including for oral health and maternity care, next year. 

Family Well-Being and Supports 

When families have access to concrete supports like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), child care, and stable housing, reports of neglect and entries into the foster care system decrease. When a child’s safety is at risk, it is critical to equip grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other kinship caregivers to step in without facing financial hardship.   

  • Invest in youth transitioning out of care 
    • ▪ The FY26 state budget includes $6.4 million in ongoing funding for Extended Foster Care services, promoting stable housing, education, and workforce opportunities that help young people successfully transition to adulthood. It also empowers foster youth by requiring DCS to "identify and consider" the placement preferences of the child in developing a plan for their placement. 

CAA championed several legislative proposals this session aimed at strengthening family stability and expanding support for kinship caregivers. While SB1305 stalled, the bill sought to increase financial assistance to kinship caregivers outside the Department of Child Safety (DCS) system, and another proposal, SB1490, sought to raise stipends for kinship foster families, recognizing the essential role relatives play in providing stability for children in care.  

We also supported SB1246 and HB2462, bills which updated the definition of neglect to ensure that poverty alone is not treated as a reason to separate children from their families. Although these proposals did not pass, we remain committed to advancing these measures next session. 

The Legislature passed SB1333, which strengthens oversight of congregate care placements and reinforces efforts to place children in family-like settings whenever possible. The bill ensures children with behavioral needs are not turned away from care when appropriate services are available, supporting more timely and appropriate placements for youth with behavioral health challenges.  

Summary 

CAA is grateful to Governor Katie Hobbs, the Arizona State Legislature, advocates, and partner organizations for their commitment to passing needed solutions this legislative session. While many of these measures were a step in the right direction, more investment in our children and families is needed. Looking forward, CAA will continue to work for bipartisan solutions, while protecting services and programs for children and families. 

The Countdown Begins - AZ Students Need a Permanent Fix to the School Spending Limit

Arizona voters approved into law a limit on what public schools can spend in a year based on the needs in 1980. If schools exceed the limit in a school year, as they did last year and again this year, the law allows the legislature to provide an “expenditure override” to allow districts to spend funds that have already been budgeted, with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate. An expenditure override does not increase taxes and is independent of the legislature’s budget decisions during the year. 

The spending limit is antiquated and based on what school needs were like in 1980. That is evident by the fact that Arizona is hitting the spending limit this year despite Arizona school funding being the lowest in the nation. Without the expenditure override, schools would be forced to make extreme cuts before the end of this school year. It would be an economic disaster for the Arizona public school system, especially since the state funding per pupil ratio is among the lowest in the nation. Arizona’s public schools are already experiencing a teacher shortage and struggling with additional costs caused by the pandemic. 

Today’s school state funding should not be restricted to budgets created over 40 years ago.  

The Arizona legislature must: 

  1. Send a referral to the ballot to permanently address the issue.  
  1. Continue to pass a resolution to override the limit for each school year until voters address the issue.

The Problem with the Limit. Arizona’s Aggregate Expenditure Limit is outdated. It is based on education spending in the 1980s – before personal computers, the emphasis on STEM education, concerns about school safety, teacher shortages, and increased spending for special education students. Today, it threatens Arizona’s ability to make the investments needed to increase its per-student funding ranking above 48th in the nation.  

Overriding the Limit. Arizona’s constitution allows school districts only one option to avoid budget cuts – a one-time override that must be passed, not by voters, but by the state legislature, and not by a simple majority but by two-thirds of both chambers. Should this override approval not occur by the March 1 deadline, districts will be directed to reduce their budgets to keep within the limit and submit a revised budget in April.  

To make a permanent change to the limit, either the legislature would need to refer the issue to the voters or signatures would need to be collected to place the issue on the ballot at a future general election.  

 Options for a Permanent Fix to the Spending Limit. The only option to avoid districts having to cut their budgets in the middle of the school year is for the legislature to pass a one-time override. But Arizona needs a permanent fix to the current expenditure limit. Here are some options for a permanent fix: 

  • Reset the Base Year. If Arizona retains the Aggregate Spending Limit calculation, it needs to be based on what today’s public schools pay for – computers and technology, student safety, increased pay for teachers, and all other district staff. This option requires voter approval to amend the state constitution. 
  • Use the Weighted Student Count. Instead of using a student count that reflects just enrollment, a weighted student count would take into consideration the higher costs of providing education to students with special needs, small school districts, grade level, and English language learners. 
  • Expand the List of What is Exempt from the Limit. The school spending limit should not include spending linked to school or student characteristics, such as increases in the number of special education students, students with disabilities, or English language learners, or the mix between elementary and secondary students. 

Eliminate the Expenditure Limit Altogether. The K-12 aggregate spending limit was adopted at a time when major changes were being made to how the state’s public schools were to be funded. Concerns existed that these changes might result in significant tax increases. Today, we know that school spending is controlled in several ways. It increases to the per-student base-level spending formula are restricted to inflation or 2 percent, whichever is less, and are set each year by the legislature. Beginning in fiscal year 2025, these inflationary increases to base-level funding can be suspended or even reversed if inflation and employment growth do not exceed limits passed by voters or if K-12 education’s portion of the state general fund budget reaches 49 percent or more. Eliminating the expenditure limit does not mean eliminating all spending limits. 

Download the AEL one-pager PDF here

Looking to Arizona's Next State Budget

On January 13, 2025, a new Arizona legislature will be sworn in and begin forming the 2026 state budget. Today’s budget outlook is significantly different from what legislators faced last January. Then, the state faced an $835 million deficit for the budget year that was already halfway over, with an additional $879 million deficit for the 2025 budget year. The Finance Advisory Committee recommended legislators identify $2.2 billion in solutions to re-balance the budget. In contrast, reports are already surfacing that today the state has a budget surplus for Fiscal Year 2026: the beginning balance was $324 million above what was originally expected, and, through the end of October, revenues are $235 million above what was anticipated in the budget.

Does this mean that the legislature has more than half a billion dollars to spend? Not exactly. There are key realities that advocates and legislators need to keep in mind when looking at budget priorities.

Current budget projections exclude spending that will eventually be added back in. State law requires the legislature to not only adopt a balanced budget for the upcoming year but to also estimate revenues and expenditures for the two years that follow. Arizona’s legislature has traditionally treated some spending that should be funded every year as one time – these “ongoing one-time issues” are funded in the budget being adopted but are not included in out-year projections. The largest of these funds that are vital on an ongoing basis are the K-12 building renewal grants and the state employee health insurance trust fund, totaling more than $323 million. Had just these two issues been treated as ongoing in the forecast, the three-year budget would not have been balanced.

Some of the steps taken to balance last year’s budget will be reversed at a cost to the General Fund in the future. Most of these reversals will not occur in the 2026 budget, but they will impact future spending. These include:

  • $37 million for the K-12 poverty weight and $29 million for K-12 additional assistance, both of which were recategorized as one-time in the current budget but with the intent that they be returned to ongoing in budget year 2028. These funds invest in additional supports and resources so all students can thrive and be successful in school and their future.
  • $200 million to reverse the temporary use of other funds in the Department of Juvenile Corrections, the Department of Corrections, and AHCCCS.
  • $2.9 million to replace the temporarily increased deposits into the General Fund from the regulatory boards. Many Arizona regulatory boards, such as the medical board and board of psychology examiners, deposit 10 percent of their revenues into the state’s General Fund and retain the remaining 90 percent for their operations. The legislature changed the distribution to the General Fund to 15 percent through budget year 2028, bringing an additional $2.9 million a year into the General Fund.

Some priorities that were unfunded or underfunded should be revisited. These include:

  • Child care assistance for families who can’t afford to work without affordable care. While the current budget included $12 million in increased funding, it was not enough to avoid the creation of a waiting list for low-income families in August 2024. Child care assistance not only helps families pay for quality child care but also helps employers by reducing the absences parents might have when other options fail. In the 2024 legislative session, $100 million in funding was sought to avoid placing families on a waiting list.
  • Financial support for informal kinship families. When children cannot live with their own parent(s), a grandparent or other relative is often the next best place for them. Children who are taken into Department of Child Safety custody and are placed with relatives through the court system are eligible for assistance of $204 a month for the first child and $71 for each additional child. Informal kinship families where the grandparent or other relative took the child in without the Department of Child Safety being involved also used to receive assistance – called “child only” payments – however, that part of the program was eliminated during the Great Recession and never restored. In these times of rising costs, restoration of this support for grandparents and kin is more important than ever.
  • Teachers Academy to grow new teachers. The teachers academy has provided more than 1,000 teachers a year since 2021. This program provides free tuition for students who agree to teach in an Arizona public school. For budget year 2025, funding was cut from $30 million to $16 million.
  • Promise Scholarships to make college affordable for eligible students with financial need. This program provides financial aid to Arizona high school graduates who meet the eligibility requirements for Pell Grants, making in-state higher education accessible for students who might not otherwise be able to afford it. The funding was cut from $40 million to $20 million. In addition, although the budget bills established a community college promise fund, no monies were appropriated for that fund.
  • Community college pathways for learning and job skill development. The budget continues to suspend the operating budget funding formula for Maricopa and Pima community colleges, and it suspends inflationary adjustments for STEM and workforce programs for all community colleges.

What caused last year’s budget problems? While the solutions to resolve last year’s budget problems were primarily spending cuts, the problem was caused by revenues that fell short of projections. This was not due to a softening of the state’s economy. Instead, while Arizona’s economy was strong, revenues failed to reach needed levels due to the final phase-in of the flat income tax, which reduced state revenues by more than $2 billion.

Bottom Line. While on the surface, Arizona’s budget picture appears much rosier than it did a year ago, there are critical ongoing expenditures masked as “one-time” investments as well as reversals of temporary shifts that must be taken into account for a true understanding of Arizona’s fiscal standing. Legislators and advocates need to remember that the steps taken to balance the budget, whether by changes in terminology or actual cuts, will have impacts several years into the future.

Arizona Preschoolers Are at Risk of Being Left Behind

Last Thursday, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) released its annual State of Preschool Report. The report is a state-by-state comparison of preschool program funding, access, and best practice policies. This year’s report notes that preschool programs are at a critical juncture. During the COVID pandemic, enrollment in programs decreased drastically while there was an influx of pandemic relief funding intended to help maintain the infrastructure. As that temporary federal funding is ending, states, including Arizona, face the choice of producing their own additional resources for preschool or backsliding on their progress.   

During the 2022-2023 school year, enrollment of 4-year-olds in public preschool increased, but Arizona still lags far behind the rest of the country, placing forty-third out of fifty. State spending totaled $20,779,103 (almost all attributed to First Things First funds), and an additional $11,450,342 in federal recovery funds supported the program, up $10,792,365 (50%), adjusted for inflation since last year.  Policymakers have invested zero general fund dollars into preschool. Arizona remains unchanged and way behind the rest of the nation in meeting only three of the ten best practice benchmarks. While much of the rest of the nation has made noteworthy progress, children are being left behind in states like Arizona that have not made any fundamental changes. Access to high-quality preschool is one way to ensure that young children arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed.  

It is more important than ever for our policymakers to prioritize investing in high-quality early childhood programs. 

Click here for the full report.

$100M in Gov. Hobbs budget proposal for child care.

Our thanks to Governor Hobbs for prioritizing child care in her budget proposal. On Friday afternoon, the Governor released her budget proposal signifying her priorities for the upcoming legislative session.  Included in that budget was $100M to stave off a looming funding cliff facing child care providers and parents in Arizona.   

During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal child care relief stabilized Arizona’s early care and education system. It helped child care programs keep their doors open and improve wages, benefits, and professional learning for their workforce. However, these funds will sunset in September 2024, resulting in a child care fiscal cliff that could see as many as one-third of Arizona’s child care programs close and nearly 100,000 children and their families could lose the child care they depend on. 

We can’t let that happen for families, providers, or our economy. Yes, the $100,000 million in Governor Hobb’s budget is just as vital for the Arizona economy as Arizona’s families. A recent report by the Century Foundation showed that without sustained childcare funding: 

  • Arizona employers will lose $278 million in employee productivity. 
  • As many as 5,000 child care jobs will be lost. 
  • Arizona parents will lose a combined $257 million as a result of cutting hours or leaving the workforce altogether. 

This proposed funding is a great first step to address this crisis. Now, that Governor Hobbs has prioritized child care, we’ll be working with legislators, partners, and community members like you to get this proposal across the finish line for Arizonans

For more information on the Governor’s Budget Proposal click here.

State budget has small key wins for AZ children & families, BUT more needs to be done

Children's Action Alliance's annual legislative agenda is designed to assure the necessary community conditions exist so all Arizona families have equitable access to high-quality education, health care, child well-being, services, and economic opportunities. Our agenda is advanced through funding in the 2023-2024 state budget.  Last week, Governor Hobbs passed and signed the budget, and there were some small but key wins for Arizona children and families including:

  • KidsCare Program Expansion: The budget expands KidsCare eligibility within Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) to 225% of the federal poverty level, providing healthcare to an additional 12,000 children. Children's Action Alliance advocated for a higher threshold of 300% of the federal poverty level.
  • Strong Families AZ Home Visiting System: The budget allocates $2.5 million to support the Nurse-Family Partnership in the Strong Families AZ Home Visiting System.
  • Reducing financial barriers for youth attempting to exit the Juvenile Justice System:  The budget allocates $250,000 to offset the loss of revenue from the elimination of some fees and fines that often create financial barriers for young adults.
  • Positive Parenting Program Pilot: The budget establishes a pilot program for the Positive Parenting Program, focusing on post-permanency placements.
  • Emergency Shelter and Transitional Living: Funding is increased to provide better emergency shelter and transitional living options for children and youth in foster care.

While acknowledging the importance of these investments, more is needed to determine how these programs will be implemented.  And much more is needed to allow all Arizona families to thrive.

These are Children’s Action Alliance’s legislative priorities that still need to be addressed: 

Early Childhood 

  • State investment to increase child care provider reimbursement rates. 
  • Increased access to high-quality early learning settings such as Head Start, child care, and preschool. 
  • Expansion of mental and behavioral health support in care and education programs. 

 Children and Family Health 

  • Comprehensive dental care for adults covered by Medicaid. 
  • Streamlined enrollment and uninterrupted AHCCCS coverage for children. 
  • Extended AHCCCS eligibility for non-citizen children and pregnant individuals. 

 Child Welfare 

  • Establish a coordinated and collaborative statewide effort to review and reform Arizona’s mandated reporting system. 
  • Ensure foster children placed with kin receive the same level of support as they would get in a community foster home. 
  • Increased access to services for kinship families not formally involved in the child welfare system. 

Concerns Surrounding the Budget 

Children's Action Alliance has some concerns about the recently passed budget, considering the crucial need for increased investments in Arizona's children and families. One major concern is the potential shortfall in actual state revenues or higher-than-projected expenditures. 

The budget relies on a small ending balance that could quickly diminish. The projected ending balance for fiscal year 2024 is $7.8 million – less than 1% of projected revenue. Should revenues fall short of projections, it is very likely the budget will become unbalanced. While $1.4 billion is available in the Rainy-Day Fund, those dollars would provide a one-time solution. If it is determined that ongoing spending exceeds ongoing revenue, the legislature would have two choices: (1) Permanent cuts to spending or (2) Permanent increases to revenue. 

The budget fails to adopt any controls on the growth of the Universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program.  In the eight months since applications for universal ESAs opened up, enrollment in the ESA program (including the categories that previously existed) has grown from 13,200 to 56,134 students as of May 15, increasing by nearly 1,000 in one week. Enrollment is expected to increase as the new school year approaches. The cost to the state’s General Fund depends not only on the number of ESA students but also on whether those students had previously been enrolled in a public school (and therefore at least partially funded through the state’s General Fund). The absence of a cap or any other limiting criteria, such as an income limit, means participation in the ESA program could far exceed available funding. Learn more about ESAs here:  https://azeconcenter.org/arizona-school-vouchers-explained/  

The budget provides only one-time funding for issues that appear to be ongoing. The budget process requires the legislature to identify projected ongoing revenues and expenditures for the two years following the year being appropriated. One-time expenditures are not included. While capital projects, highway construction, and repairs are clearly one-time expenditures, other spending that has been categorized as one-time appears to really be ongoing. This includes $12 million in the Department of Child Safety to replace federal and other funds that will no longer be available and $60 million in the Department of Corrections for increased contract costs. While the Statement of Revenues and Expenditures reports more than $700 million remaining at the end of the fiscal year 2026, that number would shrink if even a portion of the nearly $3 billion identified as one-time expenditures for the fiscal year 2024 is actually ongoing. 

Arizona's Voters Deserve a Say in the State's Budget

The voices of voters are once again being silenced. After several moves that are undemocratic, lacking in transparency and clearly an attempt to rush through billions of dollars of taxpayer money with almost zero input from the public, the final floor vote is set for tomorrow morning.   

 At 5pm yesterday evening, the state legislature introduced its slate of budget bills publicly. The budget details, negotiated between the Governor’s Office and Republican Leadership, were released and committee hearings were held less than 24 hours later. The public had little to no chance to review the content, synthesize the material or share their feedback on an approximately $17 BILLION budget. This budget is made up of tax dollars paid for by you, the citizens of Arizona. This is a continuation of the pattern of silencing the voices of voters in recent years. 

 Worse, the House Appropriations committee, in a partisan move, immediately combined all 17 bills into one vote. And then limited members ability to ask questions of staff about the content. They allowed zero public comment on the measures. This even though members of the public had taken time to be present to testify. 

 Questions and concerns from Representatives as well as stakeholders and other members of the public had begun to bubble up, in particular about the long-term budget ramifications of the failure to place a cap or any meaningful oversight on the out-of-control expansion of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA’s).

Rather than hear or work to address those concerns in the only public forum the citizens have once budget bills are released, Committee leadership chose to close ranks and shut out dissent. 

 Children’s Action Alliance and the Arizona Center for Economic Progress believe strongly that citizens should take every opportunity to participate in the process of government and have their voice heard and that lawmakers have a duty to listen to those they represent, even the ones they disagree with.   

 *CAA and the AZ Center will have additional analysis of the budget proposal in the coming days.   

Arizona poised to end seizure of benefits owed to foster children

Arizona is one of a growing number of states considering proposals to prohibit child welfare agencies from seizing foster children’s federal benefits. Nationwide and in Arizona, roughly 5% of all children and youth in foster care qualify for Social Security Administration disability and survivor benefits. They qualify for these benefits because they are disabled or have lost their parents. But most foster children never see these benefits, or even know that are receiving them. That is because the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) intercepts the funds and applies them to the costs of the child’s own foster care. This longstanding practice, known as “benefits mining,” has come under scrutiny following a 2021 investigation by the Marshall Project and National Public Radio. The investigation estimated that in 2018 alone, child welfare agencies across the US seized $165 million dollars owed to foster children and used the money to pay for the costs of their foster care placements. During the 2022 Arizona State Fiscal year, DCS seized an average of $764 a month from nearly 700 foster children, totaling $6.25M in revenue.   

Legislation to end Arizona’s practice of "benefits mining" is currently working its way through the state legislature. House Bill 2559 (Montenegro) will prevent DCS from using children’s federal benefits to pay for the cost of their own care while in DCS custody and require that the benefits be accounted for, protected, and saved for the children’s own use when they exit foster care. The fate of HB 2559 will depend on whether it survives state budget negotiations as a General Fund appropriation will be needed to make up the dollars that DCS will lose.   

While the funds DCS “mines” from foster children represents just a tiny fraction of the agency’s budget, for a child who has experienced foster care they represent the ability to pay for college, a car, a house, or even food and other necessities. For a young adult who may not have another safety net after aging out of care, these funds can be the difference between surviving and thriving.  

Learn More 

Win for Prop 208 and the Voters of Arizona

PRESS STATEMENT 

June 23, 2022 

$800 Million in New Ongoing Funding for Public Education is a Win for Prop 208 and the Voters of Arizona 

(PHOENIX, AZ) When nearly 1.7 million Arizona voters passed Proposition 208 in November 2020 they sent a clear message that they wanted to substantially increase funding for K-12 public education and they supported raising taxes on the wealthiest Arizonans to do so. While the Supreme Court’s heavy-handed decision striking down Prop 208 went against the will of the voters, the Supreme Court could not erase the strong message that voters had sent: that they were tired of Arizona having the most underfunded schools in the nation and they would no longer tolerate the state legislature’s failure to properly fund public education.

So make no mistake about it, the more than $800 million in new ongoing funding for public education included in the new state budget would not have happened without all of the Arizona voters who supported Prop 208, and all of the teachers and other community volunteers who worked so hard to make it happen. Initial budget proposals did not include anywhere near the amount of new public education investments that made it into the final budget. But lawmakers could no longer ignore the will of the voters. That is why the new budget includes new annual investments in our public schools that are nearly equivalent to the amount of annual funding that would have been raised by Prop 208.

The additional funding includes:

  • More than $500 million increase to the funding formula
  • $100 million for the new opportunity weight
  • $100 million increase for special education
  • $50 million for more school safety officers and counselors

“We are pleased to see that Arizona’s public schools will be getting close to the same level of investments that Prop 208 would have provided,” said David Lujan, President and CEO of Children’s Action Alliance, one of the organizations behind Prop 208.

But if we are painting the complete picture, while the new investments for public education are certainly a bright spot in this budget, the budget package also contains millions of dollars in new tax cuts and tax credits that will threaten the sustainability of this new education funding in the future, and will make it virtually impossible to make the additional investments that would be needed to get Arizona closer to the national average in education funding. Even with these new investments, Arizona will still remain in the bottom 10 nationally in per pupil funding. Continuing to drain future state revenues through tax cuts will likely lead to big budget cuts when the next recession arrives. Expanding school vouchers will also divert even more public tax dollars away from public schools to private schools with no accountability.

Arizona still has much work to do to ensure all of Arizona’s public school students have the resources they need to succeed. We need to make sure we are electing state legislators who both support new investments in our public schools and who will put an end to the annual practice of draining future state revenues by doling out tax breaks to big corporations and the rich. That is why it is so important for Arizona voters continue to have their pro-public education voices heard this November.