• Our Policy Interests

  • ABEC strives to:

    • Build meaningful relationships with elected officials, opinion-leaders, school officials and the business community, and identify issues of common interest.

    • Be an information resource for elected officials and the community on K-12 public education issues such as school finance, regulations, data collection, standards and more.

    • Create a “safe place” for discussing issues related to K-12 public education and identify ways all parties to find common ground.

    • Serve as a unified voice on policies that advance education.

     

    ABEC Policy Interests:

    Standards and Assessments – Continue to move forward and properly fund the implementation of “high standards and assessments” already in place for ALL students.

    Relationships – Coalesce business, K-12 education, opinion-leaders, and elected officials to create solutions that are sustainable and long-term, based on common interests.

    Economic Impact – Ensure the State’s economic growth by recognizing that K-12 public education is a key driver and contributes to a higher quality of life for ALL Arizonans.

    Regulations – Eliminate onerous and costly regulations that reduce administrative efficiencies and impede teachers’ abilities to teach in the classroom.

    Excellent Educators & Accountability – Adopt and implement fair and practical academic and fiscal accountability measures to ensure success for all of Arizona’s schools, teachers and students.

    School Finance – Continue to engage a proactive dialogue with elected officials, business, K-12 education and opinion-leaders regarding Arizona’s school finance system, and work together to determine the best funding model that will yield top results.

     

    2019 Public Policy Agenda

    1) SUPPORT the discussion and identification of new, dedicated and sustainable revenue stream(s) in a specific Referral through the Legislature.

    2) SUPPORT state finance formula changes by adding an “Equity Weight” to give struggling school districts resources necessary to close existing achievement gaps.

    3) SUPPORT review and possible elimination of existing tax credits, especially those with automatic, built in inflation factors such as Student Tuition Organizations and oppose further erosions of the existing tax base via additional credits, exclusions or exemptions of current tax revenue streams.

    4) SUPPORT reduction of public tax dollars being maneuvered into private schools via vouchers, ESA expansion or any other means. Private schools should be entirely privately funded.

    5) SUPPORT the current budget surplus to address school capital needs and rainy day fund investment as two highest priorities. 

    6) SUPPORT Public Charter School reform measures that prospectively eliminate new, for profit charters and add appropriate transparency and accountability for public charter expenditures that mirrors existing accountabilities for other public schools, where applicable.

    7) SUPPORT repeal of “low bid” mandate from last session and adopt a more universal set of rules for procurement that incorporates best practices from around the country.

    8) SUPPORT moving Group A into Group B to ensure weighted dollars remain where the student is actually being educated rather than formulaic manipulations based upon historic and no longer accurate measures.    

    9) SUPPORT positions consistent with reducing salary compression for classified staff as Proposition 206 continues to phase in.  This may require subsequent statutory change to cure the compression issue.

    10) SUPPORT additional auditor request for State Charter Board to enhance their financial management tools and to help prevent public charter financial collapses that have harmed families and students.

    11) SUPPORT incorporating beneficiaries in any discussion on teacher pension reform.

    12) SUPPORT Arizona Board of Regents call for in state scholarship tuition aid to reduce tuition costs for Arizona students.

    13) SUPPORT Community College needs to better serve workforce development agenda.

    14) SUPPORT the restoration of 9th grade CTE funding and consider conforming with federal guidelines that provides CTE support/funding to the 5th grade level.

    15) SUPPORT the funding of full day kindergarten.

    16) SUPPORT a review of Results Based Funding to ensure such measures do not stress student equity concerns or limit the ability of local districts to use critical new funding to reduce student achievement gaps.

    17) SUPPORT the restoration of full funding for District Additional Assistance as announced by Governor Ducey.

    18) SUPPORT repeal of the current, state adopted “Menu of Assessments” for school accountability.

    ~~ Board approved February, 2019

    Download ABEC's 2019 Public Policy Agenda here.