It’s time to address school spending limit

The Legislature must take up the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) as soon as possible to ensure our schools have budget certainty. While there was some excitement about the new funding given to education in this year’s budget, those investments may never happen for our schools or students if the AEL is not addressed.

We should not wait any longer – the Legislature must take up the Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) as soon as possible to ensure our schools have budget certainty. While there was some excitement about the new funding given to education in this year’s budget, those investments may never happen for our schools or students if the AEL is not addressed.

The AEL has become a political football used for negotiations when it should be a simple, procedural vote that allows schools to spend the funds they were already given. Recently, it was said that there are other priorities the governor would like to accomplish in addition to the AEL, which may include increasing funding for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. This wasn’t a part of the original deal.

Through this year’s budget there was agreement to provide $800 million in funding to schools with a promise that the AEL would be addressed. Now, halfway through the school year, we are still without any action or movement for this year. The promise made has been broken and is putting these new investments and more, totaling $1.3 billion, at risk of being cut from school budgets this year.

It is not fair that the state keeps stringing our schools along with the threat that this amount of funding could be taken away from them. This leaves schools with crippling uncertainty. The looming threat of a 17% budget cut in the last quarter of the school year leads to big questions that school leaders will have to face. Will they have to furlough staff? Can their schools remain open? Which programs will be cut? How will this affect students, teachers and families?

Rich Nickel

The implications are significant and go beyond the school’s walls. Schools are often one of the largest employers in their communities. When children are in safe learning environments, their families can go to work or pursue postsecondary education. When our schools are strong, our communities are strong.

Ideally the AEL will be addressed by the end of the year, but if not, the governor-elect and Legislature should make it one of their first priorities when they are seated in January. It should be done cleanly and without reforms. This is not the time or the place to find political opportunity — this is the time for us to give certainty back to our schools and know they can spend the funds they have been given, without worrying about school closures or staff furloughs.

It is time to do the right thing for our schools. Once we do, then we can all turn our attention to the bigger issues that need to be addressed, including helping students improve in reading and math, retaining teachers, and helping more students prepare for and complete a postsecondary education. These are the issues that voters prioritize and want to see meaningful action on, not quibbling over a spending limit.

Rich Nickel is president and CEO of Education Forward Arizona, which champions P-20 education attainment as critical to advancing the state’s economy and improving the quality of life of residents.