The Arizona Senate President is calling for an additional audit of the voter approved agency that runs programs for early childhood health and development. This request comes one day after the group formally opposed the legislative leader’s education funding proposal.
The proposed plan would mean taking $200 million from the First Things First program next yearand $75 million each year after to put towards funding K-12 public schools.
“First Things First says its programs and agency are efficient and successful. The state needs to find out if that’s the case,” Senate President Andy Biggs said in a statement.
Over the past eight years its undergone multiple state, federal and independent reviews. The agency said its audit for the past eight years have all been clean. First Things First also said Biggs' comment about the plan not taking funding from current programs is mischaracterizing the impact the proposal would have.
"You don’t help Arizona’s children 'get the education we all want them to have' by taking money from preschoolers to give it to high schoolers," spokeswoman Liz Barker Alvarez said in a statement. "There is no way to say that robbing Peter to pay Paul is truly an increased investment in education,"
In order for the state to redirect this money, it would need to be approved by the voters. A 2010 proposal to divert some of the programs money was rejected by Arizonans.
