Arizona's Dismantling of Public Education

The purpose of vouchers is to bust Unions and move funds to religious schools. Jews, Baptists and Catholics oh my, lol…

I could be wrong, but….

 

You’re not

 

And the taxpayer who has a kid that would be better served in private school…should be considered in how we allocate funds for education. Government and the one size fits all is not the best answer for everyone. And there are kids without the means that could use help that would allow them to attend a school that is better for them. At a price that is less to the taxpayer if set up accordingly.

 

Are we talking about a child with specific needs that are not addressed in the public schools? Or are we talking about a parent who just wants his child to go to school with fewer poor people?

But you didn't really address my points at all. The pooled resources, the sense of community obligation to education, the sense of community in a neighborhood, in an entire town. Doesn't that get eliminated or greatly watered down if everyone is heading to different schools?

 

We are talking we are all tax payers and if a parent without the means who pays taxes (yes rent pays property taxes). Then they should have options outside your one world utopia!

It is beyond short sighted to think only government is the answer. Each child and circumstance is different. And no. It does not water down anything to allow parents options.

The arrogance of teacher unions (not teachers though a few) is ridiculous and damaging!

 

Arizona School Voucher Program Causes Budget Meltdown — ProPublica

In 2022, Arizona pioneered the largest school voucher program in the history of education. Under a new law, any parent in the state, no matter how affluent, could get a taxpayer-funded voucher worth up to tens of thousands of dollars to spend on private school tuition, extracurricular programs or homeschooling supplies.

In just the past two years, nearly a dozen states have enacted sweeping voucher programs similar to Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account system, with many using it as a model.

Yet in a lesson for these other states, Arizona’s voucher experiment has since precipitated a budget meltdown. The state this year faced a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, much of which was a result of the new voucher spending, according to the Grand Canyon Institute, a local nonpartisan fiscal and economic policy think tank. Last fiscal year alone, the price tag of universal vouchers in Arizona skyrocketed from an original official estimate of just under $65 million to roughly $332 million, the Grand Canyon analysis found; another $429 million in costs is expected this year.

As a result of all this unexpected spending, alongside some recent revenue losses, Arizona is now having to make deep cuts to a wide swath of critical state programs and projects, the pain of which will be felt by average Arizonans who may or may not have school-aged children.

 

Now they need to dive into the finances at the charter schools and how much money went to religious schools

 

Shocking

 

Arizona is 47th overall in education ranking of states k-12

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education/prek-12?sort=rank-desc

 

From a few days ago….

“The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is investigating the state’s school voucher program for alleged illegal payments that were approved without documentation required by state law.

On July 1, Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Boughton sent a letter to John Ward, the director of the ESA program, informing him that the 2023-2024 ESA Parent Handbook indicates that the program might be providing illegal reimbursement for student expenses. The handbook was approved by the State Board of Education in April 2023.

Specifically at issue is ADE’s approval of supplementary education materials without proof that those materials are tied to a curriculum being taught to the students.”

Arizona AG investigating school voucher program for illegal payments

 

Convoluted multi-thousand dollar govt handouts get fraudulently grifted. No way!!!!

 

ntm (and perhaps the piece does, I haven't read it yet) that the AZ big gov handout goes disproportionately to wealthy families.

 

I thought I would bring this thread back to life due to some recent news about the issue. It appears that the huge financial loss is actually not correct, at least according to some recent news. This one from a site that, according to Google, leans to the left.

Arizona’s School Choice Incurred State Savings Despite Massive Growth, Assessment Reveals

 

Sounds encouraging. Hopefully it’s accurate. Per the article it’s based on “according to a new assessment of state data from the Goldwater Institute, a leading public policy think tank out of Phoenix”.

Per Wikipedia…
“The Goldwater Institute is a conservative and libertarian public policy think tank located in Phoenix, Arizona whose stated mission is "to defend and strengthen the freedom guaranteed to all Americans in the constitutions of the United States and all fifty states".
The organization was established in 1988 with the support of former Senator Barry Goldwater

…. engages in lawsuits against federal, state and local governmental bodies to advocate adherence to constitutional law and to protect individual rights such as property rights and entrepreneurial freedom from potential government intrusion”

 

I guess this “Goldwater Institute” should let the Arizona legislature know of their findings then, about how much money was saved. The budget deficit and shortfalls they thought they had must obviously just be a clerical error.

 

They sound like political hacks to me.

AZ vouchers from what I can tell have only been in place 2 years (at least these larger dollar figure vouchers discussed here). The Goldwater Institute “analysis” somehow pins the blame on the Governor, that it “saved” money in year 1 but somehow the Governor caused the same program to become a cash burden on the state in year 2. It couldn’t possibly be that the # of families asking for these massive handouts *doubled* in year 2???

 

And dismantling public education is a bad idea how ?

 

Because it leads to people actually believing that the last election was stolen

 

Like Hillary and her minions in 2016 ?

 

Like a guy known for pushing pillows