Teachers and representatives from the Arizona and Flagstaff Education Associations gathered outside Sinagua Middle School on Tuesday as part of a statewide Educators’ Budget Day of Action to collaborate as the Arizona Legislature is finalizing the year’s budget, they are seeking additional funding for education.
Similar events happened across Arizona on Tuesday as well, including in Phoenix, Tucson and Sierra Vista. Speakers at the Flagstaff event included Mayor Paul Deasy, Patrice Horstman and Jeronimo Vasquez, both county supervisors, teacher and FEA President Derek Born, and Anne Dunno, a member of the Flagstaff Unified School District’s board.
“It is time to pay the long overdue bill to Arizona’s education system that our schools have been asking to be paid for more than two decades,” said Jessica Kitterman, an ELL interventionist at Puente de Hozho Elementary. “… We can no longer wait. It is always raining in Arizona in our public schools, who desperately need the funding to address the teacher-shortage crisis that we’re facing.”
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The state has a $5.3 billion budget surplus, according to AEA’s Educators’ Budget, which outlines the organization’s spending priorities and proposes allocating $1.23 billion of that surplus to fund public education.
In the introduction, AEA said it is proposing this budget “to recruit and retain quality educators and provide the support and resources our students need.”
“Funding these priorities will demonstrate the value Arizona has for our educators and provide the support and resources our students need,” it said.
Participants in the Educator’s Budget Day of Action hold signs representing the state budget’s surplus of $5.3 billion. The event advocated that $1.23 billion of those funds be used for public education.
Among the priorities proposed for additional funding are restored funding for full-day kindergarten and new funding for preschool, increased special education funding, and expanded access to career and technical education.
It also proposes over $4.47 million in one-time funding for educator retention bonuses, repair and maintenance of school facilities and broadband access, especially in rural and remote areas.
At the event, Killip Elementary Principal Joe Gutierrez gave a few examples of how he would like to see additional funds used.
“Our society, our world is changing right in front of us, and we are not being provided the support that we need,” he said. “Right now with the pandemic, I’m thinking of social-emotional learning. All our students, they came back to the classroom unsure, very quiet for many months. They were scared. Our students at Killip, coming back from being flooded out of school, they were scared. This shouldn’t be happening.”
He added: “These shootings that are happening across our nation are a terrible tragedy, and we shouldn’t have to be afraid to go to school. We don’t have to be afraid to provide our students with what they need in order to succeed at the levels that we would like them to succeed to.”
More can be found at arizonaea.org. A recording of the Flagstaff event is available on FEA’s Facebook page.
