Students Rally for their Communities

We stand with students: This week, students across Arizona joined their peers across the US as they planned walkouts to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations that are ramping up in our state and threaten our communities. On Friday, more than 30 schools across the Valley saw student walkouts in solidarity with a nationwide movement calling for an end to ICE’s violent and dangerous activities. 

Sophomore Jolene Lamorie said she participated in the walkout to support those who have been affected by the Trump administration and by ICE: “I’m out here for the people who deserve justice for being taken away for no reason at all,” Lamorie said, adding students wanted to use their voice to speak out for those who can’t.

Students and teachers from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona also walked out in protest of ICE on Friday.

Americans have watched in horror as ICE has escalated its tactics in Minnesota leading to the brutal killing of Renee Good, Keith Porter, and James Pretti, as well as the deaths of 6 others in ICE custody – and now ICE raids are expanding in Arizona. 

ICE in schools: In Minneapolis, ICE even targeted schools. Officials at Roosevelt High School said armed officers came on school property during dismissal Wednesday and began tackling people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders. A school official said: “The guy, I’m telling him like, ‘Please step off the school grounds,’ and this dude comes up and bumps into me and then tells me that I pushed him, and he’s trying to push me, and he knocked me down… They don’t care. They’re just animals. I’ve never seen people behave like this.” These activities are traumatizing students and undermining the basic promise that schools are safe places to learn.

Last week in Minnesota, 5-year old Liam Ramos – a legal asylum seeker – was taken into custody coming home from school and sent to Texas. Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said the ICE activity in the community is "inducing trauma." Officials from Liam’s school said, "Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused. Instead, the agent took the child out of the still-running vehicle, led him to the door, and directed him to knock — asking to be let in to see if anyone else was home — essentially using a 5-year-old as bait."

Fear is terrorizing our students: Families in targeted states, including Arizona, are terrified to send their kids to school, to go to the store, or to visit the doctor. Attendance has plummeted in schools that serve higher rates of black and brown students. Students can’t learn when they’re afraid they’ll be taken on the way home, or that they’ll arrive home to find their parents have been disappeared. As parents are being deported, older siblings are tasked with taking over the responsibilities of adults. 

This week, Phoenix Union high school district opened up online learning options for students due to these fears. Superintendent Thea Andrade sent out a letter to parents, saying: “I honor the widespread uncertainty facing our families with mixed-immigration status at home.” While we laud this solution from the district, these students shouldn’t have  to stay home away from their peers due to fear. 

This is not the America we believe in. This is not what we want for our students, our families, our neighbors, or our communities. We demand better, and we are so grateful for the young people across our state who are exercising their First  Amendment rights to protest what they see as morally wrong and against the vision of the inclusive, diverse, loving America they want.

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RTS on Bills in Committee

🛑 Use Request to Speak on the following bills:

Bad Bill Sponsor of the Week…. 
MATT GRESS (LD 4)

Mr. Matt Gress of LD 4 (Scottsdale, Paradise Valley), chair of the House Education Committee, chose to advance 7 of his own bills this week, and every single one is a massive attack on public education. Whether he’s trying to demonize school boards, chip away at school districts’ right to local control, or make it harder for districts to pass bonds, Mr. Gress has not only earned the Bad Bill Sponsor of the Week award — we created it just for him. 

HB2318, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would institute term limits for school board seats. Board members in school districts with at least 250 students could serve two 4-year terms and would then have to sit out at least one 4-year term before they could serve again. School board members serve their communities without being paid for their time or expertise, and the level of knowledge required to serve well is extremely high. Some of the state’s strongest school board members have been serving over a decade, and members across the state rely heavily on their experience and leadership. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE. 

HB2320, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would require school boards to hire an independent municipal advisor to advise on a bond election, at school district expense, before asking voters for a bond. This, like many other Gress-sponsored bills this year, robs school districts of local control and imposes more regulatory burden on district schools, while doing nothing to rein in the actual problem: universal ESA vouchers. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE. 

HB2376, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would ban school boards from purchasing or leasing school sites or buildings if a charter or private school is operating at the site or in the building. This would double down on efforts to privatize our public schools by effectively limiting districts’ ability to reclaim or repurpose public school facilities once they’ve been occupied by charters or private operators. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.

HB2379, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would require school board members to complete a training created by the state or county school superintendent (i.e., Supt. Tom Horne, MAGA Shelli Boggs, etc.) at least once every 2 years, or be ineligible to serve. School board members already receive robust training through the Arizona School Boards Association and other organizations, which they select locally and democratically. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE. 

HB2380, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), makes major changes to the way democratically elected school boards run their meetings, including forcing school boards to allow any discussion item to be removed from a consent agenda for separate discussion and voted on at any time before the vote on the consent agenda. Far-right agitators are already using tactics like this to create unnecessarily long meetings, and boards are having to try to curtail that to prevent meetings that run 6, 8 or even 10 hours. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE. 

HB2384, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), makes sweeping restrictions to school districts’ ability to manage their property, limiting lease terms, requiring voter approval for leases of 10+ years, and banning districts from purchasing or leasing some school sites or buildings. This is an attack on local control and democratically elected school boards. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE. 

HB2482, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), requires school districts to comply with procurement rules for expenditures exceeding $50,000 and conditions building renewal grant disbursement on verified compliance. Once again, local school boards have open meetings and are already subject to procurement laws. This bill is a distraction from the utter lack of accountability for ESA voucher-funded private schools and charter schools, which are publicly funded but not subject to the same procurement laws. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE. 

SB1435, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), is a rerun of a failed 2025 bill that would put Arizona public school teachers (but not teachers at ESA voucher-funded private schools) behind bars for up to two years if they so much as recommend a book to students that lawmakers consider “sexually explicit.” This bill even includes librarians at public libraries. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

SCR1028, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would ask voters to amend the Arizona Constitution to require a two-thirds supermajority vote in the Legislature for fees and assessments. A similar Constitutional provision for taxes has withered the general fund over decades, making it nearly impossible to fund our state’s many needs and priorities, including public schools. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.

HB2477, sponsored by David Livingston (R-28), would expand Arizona’s 529 “education savings plan” by allowing people to withdraw $20,000 a year for K–12 tuition, as well as transfer up to $35,000 to a Roth IRA. This is exactly what it appears to be — a voucher expansion that seeks to funnel even more dollars into private schools with no accountability. Scheduled for House Ways & Means Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE. 

HB2589, sponsored by Michael Way (R-15), threatens teachers with jail time by prohibiting organizations that receive state tax dollars from allowing anyone to perform in a “drag show performance” for people under 18, or even remain in the building while the performance goes on. The definition of “drag show” in the bill is broad enough to include school plays or football players who dress up as cheerleaders for pep rallies. Violations would be a class 4 felony, which carries a minimum sentence of 1 year in prison. In 2023, the Legislature’s nonpartisan rules attorneys told lawmakers a similar bill was likely unconstitutional. Scheduled for House Judiciary Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

HB2805, sponsored by John Gillette (R-30), would require the state to allow online signatures via E-Qual for nomination petitions for local candidates for various boards, including school board and community college board. This will help working parents, educators and other community members to qualify for the ballot, promoting better representation. Scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.

HB2833, sponsored by Rachel Keshel (R-17), would require mandatory reporters (such as teachers) to immediately report “threats of death or serious physical injury made by a minor against another minor” to law enforcement or DCS. This vague and extremely broad language puts students’ rights at risk and may impose on their free speech. It also endangers the teachers and staff who are left to interpret what kids say (i.e., quoting a song lyric, making a joke, etc.) without any legal guidance. Scheduled for House Judiciary Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE. 

HCR2044, sponsored by Steve Montenegro (R-29), would ask voters to enshrine racism in the state Constitution. This anti-DEI, Trumpian measure would prevent the state from giving BIPOC-owned businesses any preference in state contracts, keep school districts from specifically hiring black or brown teachers in an effort to increase representation, block teachers from discussing inclusion and equity issues that have arisen despite the 14th Amendment, and ban certain content from being taught in schools. This would negatively impact student learning, as well as teacher retention and recruitment. The legislature would be allowed to also "prescribe related practices or concepts" to ban. Scheduled for House Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

🤓✅ Introducing the SOSAZ 2026 Bill Tracker! This live document contains full information about all bills SOSAZ supports or opposes in 2026 and gives you up-to-the-minute information on where these bills stand. Bookmark the Bill Tracker to stay in the know. 

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