PHOENIX — A funding crisis for Arizona public schools has been averted.
Until the next crisis.
In a span of 24 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, bipartisan majorities in the Republican-controlled House and Senate removed a cap on school district spending.
The votes give school districts access to $1.4 billion that the Legislature budgeted in 2022 for the current school year.
The money would have been inaccessible by April because of the four-decade-old spending cap, known as the aggregate expenditure limit.
School districts were bracing for possible layoffs, closings and other budget cuts by April. The Legislature had a March 1 deadline to lift the cap.
"I'm inclined to vote 'no' myself," said Republican Senate President Warren Petersen of Gilbert, "but I am voting 'yes' because I voted for this."
Petersen's remarks highlighted the frustrations voiced by the education community.
Legislators had to vote a second time to let schools spend all the money that many of the same legislators had approved last year.
This second vote gave some Republican public school opponents a second kick at cutting K-12 funding.
"Our public education system is broken," first-term State Sen. Janae Shamp of Surprise said before voting against lifting the limit.
In both the House and Senate, a majority of Republicans voted with Democrats to help the measure clear the two-thirds supermajority needed to take effect by March 1.
The waiver lasts for one year. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs doesn't need to sign it.
"I am grateful, very grateful that we are acting today to relieve the stress and anxiety that parents, teachers, students and communities have been facing," said Democratic State Sen. Christine Marsh of Phoenix.
The final vote in the Senate was 23-7, with nine Republicans joining the chamber's 14 Democrats.
The House voted 46-14 in support of lifting the cap, with 17 Republicans joining the 29 Democrats.
The vote marked a defeat for Republican State Sen. Jake Hoffman's far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus.
He had demanded concessions on school district spending and policies in exchange for supporting spending the waiver. He got nothing, and the measures passed easily.
School advocates created an Education Doomsday clock to highlight the time left to remove the cap. On Wednesday, it was at 21 days.
This marks the second consecutive legislative session year that lawmakers have had to break the spending ceiling to give school districts their budgeted funding.
(Charter schools aren't constrained by the aggregate expenditure limit. They didn't exist when AEL was voted into law in 1980.)
Unless the voter-approved spending cap is altered or eliminated by voters, it likely won't be the last time school districts bump up against the ceiling.
In a "Sunday Square Off" interview last month, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs said it was time for a permanent solution.
"When we keep running against it every year, I think we need to do more than this annual exercise in suspension," Hobbs said.
She said a statewide ballot measure might be needed in 2024.
After the final vote at the Capitol Wednesday to lift the spending ceiling, Hobbs reiterated the need for a permanent fix.
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