Special Legislative Session on Education Funding Under Way

Gov. Doug Ducey called the Arizona Legislature to a special session on education funding Wednesday night, with a $249 million immediate cash infusion part of the package.

The bills that make up the funding package were read Wednesday evening, and Appropriations Committee hearings and votes in both House and Senate were due Thursday, before floor votes.

The session's goal will be to approve added funding for K-12 public schools in the state, the culmination of months of pressure, political wrangling and complaints from educators about Arizona's low level of school funding.

The package that was still being negotiated included $249 million in funding to go to schools immediately upon passage, with money coming from the state's budget surplus. The package also was reported to include a change in the school funding formula and a measure to tap more from the State Land Trust Fund. The last measure would require voter approval.

The immediate payment would settle a lawsuit by school districts against the Legislature saying it illegally withheld inflation payments to school districts for several years during the state's financial downturn.

A lawyer for the schools said he was worried that the deal going to the Legislature won't address what he understood the settlement deal to be.

Republican lawmakers cut $113 million in K-12 funding in this year's budget, when it was passed in March, and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed it.

Shortly after, the U.S. Census Bureau reported the state had the lowest school funding in the nation, and later that Arizona's teachers were among the lowest paid in the country.

Pressure continued Wednesday at the state Capitol for a deal to be struck.

Stand for Children, an education policy group, launched a radio ad in Phoenix and on certain on-line listening apps to urge the Legislature to pass the school funding plan.

The one-minute spot asked listeners to call state lawmakers.