Many teachers across Arizona, including in the Queen Creek Unified School District (QCUSD), are working to increase civic participation among their students through the Center for the Future of Arizona's (CFA’s) School Participatory Budgeting (SPB).
Students across the Queen Creek district have been presenting proposals this month for their Participatory Budgeting projects. Queen Creek students planned projects to improve their schools, including budgeting and funding. District panelists were present to provide them with feedback and direction.
Every year, SPB in Arizona engages more than 63,000 students across 47 campuses statewide. It empowers students to make decisions over a portion of school funds to improve their school communities while preparing them to be engaged and informed participants in civic life.
Driven by a deep commitment to civic health, the CFA School Participatory Budgeting program is an innovative approach to equipping, engaging and empowering our rising generation to be active and informed participants in civic life.
SPB in Arizona is an innovative civic learning tool designed to improve student agency, collaboration and critical-thinking skills and prepare young people to be active, informed and engaged participants in civic life for the long-term. Students “learn democracy by doing” through a process of participating in SPB steering committees on campus, developing proposals and voting to fund improvement projects that build stronger school communities.
The school model stems from the widely adopted municipal Participatory Budgeting (PB) model - a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend a portion of the public budget.
CFA provides training and support to school partners to implement a year-long process, led by students working alongside their teachers and the community. Students work together through a process of curating ideas, developing proposals and participating in a campus-wide vote that educates students on real electoral processes.
