Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/279010
32 Summer 2014 x AEA Advocate fire or EMT, as well as any child who has a sibling who is already receiving a private school voucher, or any student who is eligible for a preschool special education program. AEA defeated this bill in the House Education Committee on February 17 by a vote of 3 ayes (Carter, Coleman and Goodale) to 5 nays (Allen, Boyer, Meyer, Miranda and Otondo). The bill failed in committee after Representative Meyer successfully added an amendment to the bill to require any student who uses a voucher (ESA) to take the same assessment as public school students. It is clear that private school voucher advocates will sacrifice their own legislation if there is an attempt to add accountability measures to the bill. Representatives Allen and Boyer specifically mentioned they were voting against the bill because the testing language was added to it. HB2256, sponsored by Representative Petersen, originated from the Gilbert School Board. This bill would have permitted a school board to vote to allow their students to be eligible for the state's private school voucher program and retain 25 percent of each voucher amount per student. This bill was assigned to the House Education Committee, but never put onto a committee agenda and is effectively "dead" for the session unless it gets re- introduced as a strike-everything amendment somewhere in the legislative process. HB2291, sponsored by Representative Lesko, included the same provisions as HB2036, but also, as introduced, significantly extends the pool of students eligible for these private school vouchers by including any student eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs and increases the household income threshold eligibility by 15 percent each year thereafter. This expansion would have included over 58 percent of the current Arizona student population. This bill was withdrawn from the House Education Committee, presumably because it didn't have the votes to pass, and assigned only to the House Ways and Means Committee where it passed on February 10 by a vote of 5 ayes (Kwasman, Lesko, Mesnard, Olson and Petersen) to 2 nays (Cardenas, Wheeler). During the House Committee of the Whole (COW), HB2291 was amended to remove the first responder children and free and reduced population from the bill. Instead, the bill will be expanded to include any student who attends a Title I school. This will expand the private school voucher program eligibility to over 72 percent of Arizona's public schools and nearly 900,000 students. This bill was retained in House COW on February 27, March 3 and 7. It is believed that the anti-public school lobbyists and private school special interests do not have the votes to pass this bill at this time. The senate version of this bill, SB1236, is sponsored by Senator Yee and passed the Senate Education Committee on February 6 by a vote of 6 ayes (Crandell, Farnsworth, Melvin, Murphy, Ward & Yee) to 2 nays (Begay & Bradley) and passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on February 11 by a vote of 6 ayes (Crandell, Griffin, Melvin, Murphy, Shooter & Ward) to 3 nays (Cajero Bedford, Pancrazi and Tovar). SB1236 is ready for floor debate in Senate COW. HB2150, sponsored by Representative Borrelli, allows children whose parents are an active duty member of the armed forces to immediately enroll in the state's private school voucher program instead of the current requirement that the child attend a public school for the first 100 days of the prior school year before switching to a private school. This bill passed the House and is working its way through the Senate. Another Senator Yee voucher bill, SB1237, expands the amount of the state's private school voucher program to include the charter school additional assistance weight as well as 90 percent of the base support level funding the student would have otherwise received if they had attend a school district. This is a significant dollar increase as the additional assistance amount is $1,684 for K-8 and $1,962 for high school. This bill passed the Senate on February 24 along party lines with Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing it and failed in House Education Committee. AEA is currently challenging the constitutionality of the state's voucher program with a coalition of education groups. For more information about debunking the myth of vouchers, see page 9. To read about how corporate lobbying groups like ALEC use vouchers to dismantle public education, see page 30. Read the statement from Arizona Teachers of the Year on voucher bill HB2291 on page 5. Funding Legislation, cont. from page 8 AT THE CAPITOL Summer.14advo.indd 32 3/14/14 2:58 PM