New Year, New Board Officers, New Priorities
We are excited to announce CAA’s new Board Chair, Ayensa Millan, and Vice-Chair, Wendy Valenzuela. Ayensa was Vice-Chair for CAA and is the founder and managing attorney at CIMA Law Group, PC where she handles criminal and immigration matters. Her commitment and dedication stem from her own personal experiences of knowing the struggles and needs of the immigrant community. Wendy has served on the board since 2015 and is the government affairs representative for state and local affairs at Arizona Public Service. We appreciate their leadership and look forward to working with all our board to accomplish our goals to improve the well-being of children and families in the state.
Our vision to create an Arizona where all children thrive starts with our legislative priorities. This year, one of the most critical issues is the school spending limits mandated by the state constitution. Public schools face $1.1 billion in budget cuts THIS SCHOOL YEAR if the Legislature does not pass a resolution to override the state constitution’s K-12 spending limitations by March 1 and send a referral to the November 22 ballot to permanently address the limit.
You will hear more about our priorities in the coming days as the 55th Arizona State Legislature will convene on Monday, January 10 with Governor Ducey set to deliver his 7th State of the State address before a joint House and Senate legislative floor session. We will keep you up to date on the issues we take a position on with our bill tracking system located on our website and through our weekly policy e-news – just like this one.
Thank you in advance for your support to lift Arizona children and families voices during this critical time.