Vote by the House in Committee of the Whole on flat tax which eventually went flat for good./screen grab
By Yana Kunichoff |Arizona Republic
Arizona’s state budget includes a move to bar school boards from mandating that students or staff wear masks, a position that is controversial because vaccination rates vary among Arizona communities and no vaccine is yet approved for children younger than 12.
From a voucher expansion to a ban on controversial discussions on race, the Arizona Legislature’s budget discussions this year were also a legislative referendum on big education questions.
And with Republican control of both houses, most efforts to strengthen school choice or minimize mask mandates were signed into law Wednesday afternoon as part of the $13 billion budget, along with a major tax overhaul that will drop rates to 2.5% over the next three years and a $50 million boost in special education funding.
Discussion on the House and Senate floors leading up to the approval of the unified legislation highlighted starkly different views of the bill.
“This is a record amount of money we are putting into education,” one legislator said.
But Democratic legislators and public education advocates said the budget, which writ large was passed with a funding surplus estimated to range between $2 billion and $4 billion, missed an opportunity to meet the biggest needs for Arizona students.
“We had a chance, and you blew it,” said Rep. Kelli Butler, D-Phoenix. “We still have teacher pay that is among the lowest in the nation. We still have class sizes that are among the largest. This budget is such a disappointment.”
