Arizona Charter Schools Association President & CEO Eileen Sigmund released the following statement on the Fiscal Year 2019 budget:
“This is a great day for Arizona schools. The Arizona Charter Schools Association applauds this state budget deal that makes vital investments in Arizona’s public schools, students and teachers.
“Specifically, we are grateful for the inclusion of the Governor’s plan to give Arizona’s teachers a 20 percent pay increase by 2020, while making a commitment to fully restore most recession-era K-12 cuts over the next five years. This funding not only will help schools recruit and retain the best teachers – it also will provide hundreds of millions of new dollars to Arizona schools for critical needs like infrastructure, updated curriculum and technology, classroom supplies, school buses and more.
“We recognize the issues being debated at the State Capitol are not easy. Throughout this process, our No. 1 focus has been ensuring our teachers and students get the resources and support they need and deserve. Today, we are proud to support a budget plan that delivers.
“On behalf of the more than 550 charter schools educating over 185,000 across Arizona, we thank Governor Ducey, House Speaker Mesnard, Senate President Yarbrough and every legislator who stood with schools and educators to get this done.”
