Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Today, 70,000 Arizona children are finally getting the education they deserve through the state’s universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, the most expansive program of its kind in the nation. But instead of celebrating those students’ success, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is launching a direct attack on their families and the beginning of a government […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Arizona lawmakers and the Goldwater Institute scored a major victory today [March 14, 2022] for parents, students, and the public K-12 education system with the passage of the nation’s most robust academic transparency legislation through the Arizona Senate. Sponsored by state Sen. Nancy Barto, SB 1211 establishes parents’ right to know what is being taught […]
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes
In too many of our nation’s classrooms, children are being taught that everything should be seen through the lens of race—a divisive and damaging worldview that negates the value of the individual. Instead of reading our country’s founding documents, students are being told that America was founded on fundamentally hateful and intolerant ideas. And they’re […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
In 2018, Arizona state lawmakers approved the “20×2020” plan to send hundreds of millions of new dollars to public school districts so they could raise average teacher salaries by 20%. But data revealed in a new Goldwater Institute report suggests that most of that money never made it—at least, not to teachers. As shown in […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Arizona voters are asking lawmakers to lead on Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs), and their voices just got louder. The state’s ESA program—which allows families to use a portion of the state dollars allotted for their children to pay for private tuition, tutors, and other teaching tools—has transformed thousands of lives both before and during the pandemic. For […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Opponents of educational freedom are attacking SB 1452 and its sponsor on the grounds that… …it would help too many students. This new bill—passed in the Arizona Senate Education Committee this week—would significantly increase access to the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. Yet disappointingly (though perhaps predictably), various pundits have begun complaining that the bill’s provisions […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
If state legislators pitched an “education funding” plan that gave just 13 cents of each new dollar to teachers, what would you call it? Perhaps a waste, an insult, or a scam? Or perhaps just Prop 208. Of course, Prop 208 (also known as the “Invest in Ed” initiative) didn’t come from state legislators—it came […]