The chairs of the Senate and House Appropriations Committee announced Thursday their plan to cut more than $1 billion from current public school funding. Nearly 20% of the state's annual education budget would be cut from local schools over the next 17 months if this budget was allowed to pass. That is a loss of about $1000 per student.

The Appropriations Committee Chairs are taking an irresponsible budget ax to education funding telling the Appropriations Committee members to determine exactly where in the education budget to make these cuts, later. The Appropriations Chairs want to act on this proposal by February 1.

I'm sure you can imagine what this would mean for your school and the urgent need to stop them.

John Wright, Arizona Education Association president, decried the proposal, saying "Arizona's leaders are willing to shoulder the burden of their own financial mismanagement over the years on the backs of our students. This kind of false solution is worse than shortsightedness; it borders on malice. The decision to keep Arizona at the bottom of education funding continues to be a deliberate one."

Two Ways to Act - Today.

1. Email your legislators a message today. Ask them to stop these education budget cuts. Let them know there is an alternative that has been offered.

2. Get out your list of friends, colleagues, and family members email addresses and send them this Update. Ask them to send messages to their legislators and subscribe to the AEA Legislative Update to broaden our list of supporters. - Paste this link into your email so they can sign up themselves: http://capwiz.com/nea/az/mlm/signup/