Editor’s note: This commentary utilizes research from the Helios Education Foundation and its associate Education Forward Arizona.

Arizona’s future depends on whether the state can educate, prepare and retain the talent needed to power its growing economy. At a time when Arizona should be making sustained, strategic investments in students, schools, colleges and workforce pathways, state leaders instead chose to reduce or eliminate investments that were already too small to meet the scale of the challenge.

That is why the final FY2027 state budget is so disappointing. 

We understand that every budget requires difficult choices. But budgets also reveal priorities and this one sends the wrong message: that Arizona can talk about a stronger workforce, a more competitive economy and greater opportunity for its residents while failing to invest in the education systems that make those goals a reality.

Education Forward Arizona has rightly noted that the budget falls short of Arizona’s education and workforce needs. The elimination of funding for dual enrollment, the Arizona Promise Program and the Ninth Grade On-Track initiative, among others, weakens the very pipeline Arizona needs to strengthen. These programs help students earn college credit earlier, make postsecondary education more affordable, and keep young people on a path to graduation and economic opportunity.

Just a few years back, Arizona made a modest but meaningful investment in early literacy by providing funding for literacy coaches in high-need schools along with related efforts to strengthen reading instruction. Today, the need is even greater and the evidence is stronger, yet the state has not scaled that investment to match the urgency. Meanwhile, the Arizona Education Progress Meter shows that after several years of steady improvement, Arizona’s reading test scores for third graders have been moving in the wrong direction.

We believe education is an investment, not an expense — one that changes lives, strengthens communities and returns value to the state. For more than 20 years, we have invested nearly $400 million in partnerships and initiatives designed to improve education outcomes in Arizona and Florida, with an emphasis on students from low-income and historically underrepresented communities. 

We have made those investments because Arizona’s attainment goal matters. Back in 2016, state leaders committed to ensuring that 60% of working-age adults hold a postsecondary degree, certificate or license by 2030. Yet today, only half of Arizona adults have reached that benchmark, according to the Arizona Education Progress Meter. Reaching this goal is not simply an education aspiration but an economic necessity. Arizona’s employers need skilled talent. Families need access to careers that provide stability and mobility. Communities need the benefits that come when more residents are prepared to participate fully in the state’s economy.

Simply hoping that the talent pipeline will strengthen on its own is misguided and foolish. The state cannot recruit, relocate or import its way to shared prosperity. It must develop more homegrown talent starting with our youngest learners.

We are doing our part and expanding our strategic focus to meet this moment. We are doubling down on our commitment to postsecondary attainment while sharpening our work in areas that are essential to long-term student success and economic mobility: early academic preparedness, emphasizing literacy and numeracy, college-going preparedness and enrollment.

State lawmakers need to step up and do their part. If Arizona wants stronger schools, higher attainment and a competitive workforce, it must invest accordingly and make student opportunity predictable, not accidental, for every Arizona student.

This budget missed the moment for education. The question now is whether Arizona’s leaders will make it a turning point. Students, families, employers and communities deserve more than short-term thinking and small, temporary investments. They deserve a durable commitment to education as the foundation of Arizona’s future.

Vince Roig is the founding board chair of Helios Education Foundation and Paul J. Luna is the president and CEO.