GOP leader demands state funds for Christian college students

PHOENIX — The head of the House Appropriations Committee warns there won’t be any new money granted to the Teachers Academy unless the state allows students at Christian universities to participate.

But Rep. David Livingston said this isn’t a threat. In fact, the Peoria Republican said he’s a big fan of the program, currently available to students in the state’s public universities and community colleges.

He said his warning is simply a recognition that Republicans control the Legislature. If Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs wants additional spending to attract more college students into the teaching profession, he said, there must be give and take on her part.

“As a Christian, we do not want to be discriminating against religious universities,’’ he said. “And I take offense to that, saying that we should.’’

This could just be one of multiple legislative fights this year over whether religious institutions should have access to public dollars. Livingston said the dispute over Teachers Academy money is just a smaller part of the Republican agenda to end what he sees as discriminating against religious institutions.

“That will be a focus of this caucus on the Republican side and the leadership team,’’ he told Democrats on the Appropriations Committee.

“And if you’re not used to that, get used to it because that’s where we are,’’ Livingston said, referring to Republican gains in the 2024 election, not just at the national level but at the state Capitol where the GOP added to its legislative majorities.

“Things have changed, folks, and we need to change with it,’’ he said. “That’s the new policy of this country. And we need to make that a policy of this state.’’

Now the question for Hobbs and the House Democrats is how flexible they’re willing to be on that question.

Lawmakers created the Teachers Academy in 2017 at the behest of Republican then-Gov. Doug Ducey. It provides one year of college tuition for students at public universities and community colleges in education programs, in exchange for each year of teaching in an Arizona public school.

That is designed to help deal with the shortage of trained teachers, something expected to accelerate with retirements on the horizon.

The current funding of $15 million a year, however, gets used up quickly, creating waiting lists. So Hobbs is asking lawmakers to double that spending.

Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, is willing to go the governor one better, boosting her request to $25 million more — but with a caveat: Eligibility would be expanded to students at private universities including Grand Canyon University and Arizona Christian Universities, both of which are religious schools.

That drew fire from Democrats this week when his House Bill 2018 was approved by the Republican-controlled Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote.

Democrats’ opposition led to Livingston’s warning.

“I think this is important enough to say that if we don’t get the additional schools we’re not putting any additional money into Teachers Academy at all,’’ he told the Democrats. “Zero.’’

Gress said the Republican plan is to split the additional $10 million 50-50, with half being added to what is available to public universities and the other half to private colleges.

The current version of HB 2018, however, does not say that. Instead, it simply opens Teachers Academy funding — all of it — to include private schools.

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Gress pointed out it will be up to the Arizona Board of Regents to divide up the available funds.

“I anticipate there will be more than enough money to allocate to both public and private postsecondary institutions,’’ he said.

In any case, Livingston repeated that Democrats need to recognize the political reality of the 2024 election.

“And apparently they don’t understand how big a deal that was,’’ he said.

Hobbs’ spokesman Christian Slater, however, said that’s a two-way street.

“The governor won an election, too,’’ he said, albeit two years ago. “If Chairman Livingston wants anything, he needs to work with her.’’

Livingston countered, “If you want increases, the Republicans will put their stamp on it. And if you won’t accept the Republican stamp on different programs, we are not expanding it.’’

Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, a Tucson Democrat, said she recognizes the nature of negotiating state spending. But she told Capitol Media Services the problem is the blatant way Livingston posed the issue to Democrats on the committee.

“The fact that they would withhold money from a successful program that everyone agrees is needed is insane,’’ said Gutierrez, who teaches yoga at Tucson High School.

“That’s not a negotiation,’’ she said. “That’s a threat: Let this money go into private universities with no oversight or you don’t get this money.’’

The committee vote came after a plea from Meredith Critchfield, dean of the College of Education at Grand Canyon University. She said the “crisis level’’ of the teacher shortage in Arizona could be cut if perhaps 1,000 students in her program were allowed to participate in the program.

While tuition at Grand Canyon exceeds what is charged at Arizona’s public universities, Critchfield said adding her school to the program would not cost any more, at least on a per-student basis. The legislation says the amount available would be equal to the average that is now paid to aid students at state universities.

But Rep. Lorena Austin, D-Mesa, said there’s no need to extend the program to private schools. She said there is plenty of demand for the funding from education students at the state universities and community colleges.

“Giving GCU access to this money will siphon money away from our public universities, even if we give them additional appropriations,’’ Austin said. “Our constitutional obligations are to our public universities, which we have continued to defund.’’

Rep. Kevin Volk, D-Tucson, said there’s another consideration. He pointed out the Arizona Constitution prohibits any public funds from being used “to the support of any religious establishment.’’

Gress countered that the dollars are going not to the school but to the student. That is exactly the argument the Arizona Supreme Court has accepted in upholding the legality of vouchers of state funds that parents can use to send their children to private and parochial K-12 schools.

Gress added that the students still agree to a contract with the state to “repay’’ those grants by teaching in public schools.

Livingston said that even if a deal isn’t reached with the governor and Democrats it is unlikely lawmakers would shutter the Teachers Academy by removing the existing $15 million ongoing appropriation.

“I want it expanded,’’ he said. “But I want more competition and I want more universities.’’