While most Arizona public school students are on summer break, school districts around the state are busy trying to fill teacher vacancies for the upcoming year.
Now that Prop 123 has passed and cleared all legal hurdles, there’s more money available in Arizona's school funding pool to do so.
Districts around the state are receiving an additional $224 million this fiscal year, and will get another $230 million for the next fiscal year that begins July 1.
Tim Ogle of the Arizona School Boards Association believes the new money will make a difference, but more will be needed to make a real difference. "Certainly this is just a first step. We’ll continue to advocate for better pay and benefits for our teaching faculty," he said. "We have a teacher crisis in this state. We have people fleeing the profession and we need the best, smartest people working with our children.”
Last week, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich cleared the way for Prop 123 money to begin flowing into schools. The office ruled that the state’s Board of Investment did not face legal liability for tapping the state’s land trust for the total of $3.5 billion that will be added to schools budgets over the next ten years.
