Hello! Save Our Schools Arizona is raising funds for our work to protect and prioritize public schools and stop the attempts to privatize them. Sadly, Arizona has become the education funding model model for the federal government—smear public schools, defund them, and reroute public school money to private, religious, home schools, and "microschools." Fully funded public shools are integral to democracy, as they help level the playing field for students, accept ALL kids, and allow them to learn within a diverse community. And unlike other school models, public schools are held to the highest level of accoutability

Since Arizona has become ground zero for school privatization, SOSAZ has stepped up our work. Leaders from SOSAZ have been traveling the country warning of the damage that privatization and school vouchers have caused in our state—largely because of vouchers; AZ now has a deficit of nearly a billion dollars, public schools are permanently closing across the state, and there are regularly occuring reports of widespread abuse of this system with families using voucher money to fund vacations, dune buggies, in-home pianos, and other luxury items. Further, it was reported last month that voucher families have hoarded $450,000,000 into their accounts that they are not even spending. Even worse, vouchers are used primarily by wealthier families who do not need financial assistance.

SOSAZ is raising funds to staff our field team. We have staff throughout the state who organize communities around these issues by speaking truth about public schools, working to elect and support leaders who value public eduation, and by hosting community events, meetings, and neighborhood canvasses informing the community of the harm vouchers cause to our schools, democracy, and our state, and telling people how they can support public schools themselves.  

The world seems to be in chaos these days, but volunteering as a board member for SOSAZ gives me hope and allows me to chanel my efforts in a positive way. If you can spare any amount of money to fund our work, I would very much appreciate it. Thank you!