Letter to the Editor: Initiative Proposal for an Educational Issue

            Education is a vital part of the development and growth of a child. As such, the federal and state governments have a responsibility to ensure that all children have access to quality education. The Legislature in the State of Arizona is responsible for setting education policies to ensure that all children in the state have access to quality education. One of the most significant aspects of education entails creating a balance in the ratio of teachers to students to ensure that the learning needs of the students are effectively met. A 2019 survey recently done by Arizona School Personnel Administration Association (ASPAA) recorded the shortage of teachers in Arizona schools as a major problem hindering the students' access to quality education. The state has been ranked to be the worst in the ratio of teachers to students calling for the need for changes for the academic best interest of the students (Rivera, 2021). Since Arizona offers opportunities for direct democracy based on initiative power, I am proposing an initiative to increase funding to the school to facilitate the hiring of more teachers to the school. The main goal of this initiative is to create a balance in the ratio of teachers to students to enhance the academic performance of the students in the school by ensuring that every student has access to the academic help and support of the teachers in the learning process.

There are several stages in the plan to make this issue an initiative under Arizona law. She first stage of the initiative will be to educate the public and inform them about the existing problem of teacher shortage in the schools and why more funding is needed for the educational benefit of their children. This will include informing the state of the finance in the state and how making the temporary sales tax permanent would help enhance the outcomes of learning by facilitating the hiring of more teachers to the schools. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides for the right to education (United Nations, n.d.). Therefore, I will appeal to the citizens by informing them how the tax would facilitate access to education for all the children in the state if the teacher shortage problem is solved.

The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act seeks to close the gaps of achievement by ensuring that all children are provided with an equal, fair, and significant chance to get an education of high quality. The second stage will establish how the funds have been allocated to the various sectors in the states. Since there is likely to be a surplus after the distribution, the initiative will present a proposal to the state government and the budget committee suggesting that at least fifty percent of the surplus funds be used to fund education given the current state of the shortage of teachers in the Arizona schools. This will be important in ensuring that the school has enough funding to hire more teachers and balance the teacher-student ratio. This will help close the gaps in achievement of the students in the school because every student will get sufficient access to the instruction and support of their teachers in the schools.

 The third and last stage will be a trial period for the proposal to establish whether the funds obtained in addition to some from the taxes could be sufficient to hire enough teachers to curb the shortage. The State of Arizona is under an obligation to ensure that every child has equal access to schooling as set out in the Constitution's 14^th Amendment equal protection clause (Legal Information Institute, n.d). The shortage of teachers in the schools means that not all children in the schools have equal access to their services. Failure by the State to consider the proposal presented by the initiative will be a violation of the 14^th Amendment provision because without enough teachers in the schools, not all the children will have equal access to schooling, which is something that they are entitled to. There must be a collective effort between the legislators and the community in Arizona to ensure that effective teachers are recruited and retained through an increase in education funding.