PHOENIX—Panfilo H. Contreras, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association, has released a statement regarding the passage by Arizona voters of Proposition 100:

"The Arizona School Boards Association and the more than 1,200 school board members throughout the state that it represents commend Arizona voters for overwhelmingly supporting the temporary one-cent sales tax to benefit education, public safety and health care. There is still work to be done to establish stable and appropriate funding for our public schools at levels that will support critical advances in academic achievement, but passage of Prop. 100 will go far to mitigate cuts to classrooms and programs for Arizona's public schools in the near future. This outcome confirms that a strong public education system is a top priority for the majority of Arizonans.

"The outcome also is a direct result of the thousands of hours parents, teachers and community volunteers put in to passionately support passage of this measure by knocking on doors, handing out flyers, sending emails, manning phone banks, even setting up lemonade stands – all to ensure that the 1 million children in Arizona public schools have learning opportunities that do more than simply meet minimum standards. In fact, if anything good has come out of the financial crisis that necessitated the passage of Prop. 100, it is that it has coalesced Arizonans around the issue of public education and the need to organize and mobilize to support our schools and affect change. We believe this movement to support education will benefit Arizona public schools as we go into this year's primaries and general election and beyond."

The Arizona School Boards Association promotes community volunteer governance of public education and continuous improvement of student success by providing leadership and assistance to school governing boards. More than 240 school boards and charter schools from across Arizona, representing 1,200-plus school board members and over 1 million children, belong to ASBA.

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