Bauders: Find permanent solution to school district Aggregate Expenditure Limit
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By Bobby Bauders, Apache Junction resident | Guest Commentary
Editor’s note: While Bobby Bauders is an Apache Junction Unified School District No. 43 Governing Board member, he did not write the below on behalf of the board or the district, just himself as an individual, he said.
A few weeks ago, the Arizona Legislature voted to override the K-12 Aggregate Expenditure Limit, before the March 1 deadline. If they had missed this deadline and failed to override the AEL, the Apache Junction Unified School District, along with every other school district in the state, would have been forced to make devastating budget cuts in the last quarter of the school year.
This would have almost certainly forced AJUSD to end the school year early, with schools closing for the year in March instead of late May.
Unfortunately our state senator, Wendy Rogers, voted to close our community’s schools and lay off hundreds of hard-working staff members.
I want to thank our district’s State Reps. David Cook, who sponsored this legislation, and David Marshall for voting to keep our schools open, keep our kids in classrooms, and to allow our district to spend the funds that had already been allocated to us by the legislature last summer.
Not only would this have been a disaster for our community’s students and families, but failing to override the AEL would have had a devastating economic impact on the Apache Junction/Gold Canyon area. AJUSD employs over 400 staff members and is the largest employer in Apache Junction. All of those employees would have essentially been laid off.
I am deeply disturbed that Sen, Rogers would vote to not only put our community’s children at risk, but also to endanger our community’s economic security. Rogers was sent to the state senate to work for our community, not against it. No politician should ever use our community’s children as political pawns for their own gain; that is not leadership.
Unless the legislature acts, this will be an annual political game for our state’s public schools. I call on Sen. Rogers and the entire Arizona Legislature to display true leadership and find a permanent solution to the AEL immediately.
