Tag Archive for: ESAs

Arizona Children Deserve Better Than Hobbs’ Plan

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Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

After months of lockdowns and countless learning loss due to the COVID pandemic, will Arizona families take another step backward when it comes to providing children a quality education? That sad fate could happen if the state’s new governor, Katie Hobbs, gets her way.

Hobbs has proposed undoing the changes to Empowerment Scholarship Accounts that the previous governor, Doug Ducey, and Legislature passed just last year. That law expanded eligibility for ESAs to include all 1.1 million Arizona K-12 students.

More than a decade ago, Arizona led the way in creating the nation’s first education savings account (ESA) program. For the uninitiated, ESAs give parents a portion of the funding that the state would have spent on their child’s public education. The money gets placed into an account that families can use on qualified educational expenses, ranging from things like books for homeschooling to private school tuition, extra one-on-one tutoring, and more.

As the mother of a child with cystic fibrosis, I fear the impact of Hobbs’ proposal on special needs children. Many parents with special needs kids find ESAs a godsend, because the account mechanism allows families to seek out the specialized services—from tutoring to behavioral therapy to curricular aids—that many public schools struggle to provide. Each child deserves an education personalized to their needs, and ESAs provide the best form of customization possible.

In addition to allowing families to choose the best educational option or options for their children, ESAs also save taxpayer funds, making Hobbs’ argument that last year’s ESA expansion will “cost” Arizona $1.5 billion completely untrue. In Arizona, the state’s contribution to a family’s ESA equals 90% of state spending on the child’s education. By definition, therefore, the state cannot “lose” money from higher ESA participation, when families selecting this option get only a fraction of the funds the state otherwise would have spent on their education.

In fact, this allegation of school choice “robbing” public schools holds little merit, whether in Arizona or elsewhere. The most recent comprehensive analysis of 40 different private school choice programs nationwide, including but not limited to ESAs, found that they collectively saved taxpayers as much as $28.3 billion. The savings come because, in all cases, families received school choice scholarships that did not equal the public district’s per-pupil spending, meaning taxpayers came out ahead in the equation.

In Arizona, Hobbs’ argument that school choice “costs” taxpayers comes with a particularly noteworthy level of irony. In the same budget in which Hobbs proposed gutting the ESA program, she also asked the Legislature to appropriate $40 million to fund an expansion of subsidized college for undocumented immigrants. The fact that Hobbs would prioritize giving a university education to illegal immigrants, even while cutting off opportunities for Arizona families struggling to find a good K-12 school, speaks volumes about the new governor’s skewed priorities.

America’s children continue to suffer from a crisis in learning after teachers’ unions kept public schools locked down for far too long. Amidst all this suffering, Arizona families deserve better than to see a governor crush their children’s chance to receive a quality education — to fund more services for non-citizens. The Arizona Legislature should see through this attempt to turn the state’s children into second-class citizens, and reject the governor’s proposals.

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This article was published by Independent Women’s Forum and is reproduced with permission.

‘Cripple Children’: Parents Protest Against Gov. Katie Hobbs’ Move To Scrap Key School Choice Program

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With signs reading “education for all” and “support for all students,” a coalition of about 150 parents protested Tuesday over newly-elected Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ plan to dismantle the nation’s largest school choice program, parents told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Hobbs’ executive budget released Jan. 13 called on state legislators to roll back the state’s expansion of its school choice program which currently makes Arizona K-12 students eligible to receive taxpayer-funded scholarships if they choose to leave or are already outside of the public education system. Education for All, a group of parents backing the state’s current school choice program, rallied against Hobbs’ announcement at the state capitol, voicing their concern that ending the program would strip their children of opportunities, parents told the DCNF.

“It would rip away essentially thousands of dollars that we as taxpayers already pay into the system, that is for our children already,” Stacey Brown, the organizer of the rally, told the DCNF. “It would mean that it would cripple some homeschoolers, it would cripple children who wouldn’t have had the opportunity otherwise to possibly go to a private school and to receive extra aid in areas that they need aid. It really, really, really, really would hinder Arizona as a whole and the leg up that we have compared to other states to provide and to produce excellent educated children. We truly want education for every child in Arizona, whatever that might be to fit their needs.”

Former Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey created the nation’s largest school choice program in July, making more than 1.1 million Arizona students in public and charter schools eligible to receive up to $7,000 in order to transfer schools.

Hobbs’ plan includes returning to the state’s previous school choice program which only provided taxpayer-funded vouchers to disabled children, students living on American Indian reservations and students attending low-performing public schools, Fox 10 reported. Under the previous program, just one-third of Arizona students were eligible, with about 11,800 students utilizing the vouchers, according to the AZ Mirror.

Since expanding the school choice program more than 45,000 students are currently enrolled, according to the Arizona Department of Education.

Bella Viner, an organizer of the rally and Arizona parent, has worked with Latino, African American and Hispanic students within the state’s school choice program to place them at the school that will best benefit them, she told the DCNF.

“Through this program, they are able to choose a better education and school that will concentrate on their needs, especially special-needs children,” Viner told the DCNF. “So they take away this program, they are going to take away the opportunity to have a better education in the future, to have a professional job and to be able to fulfill the dream that their family has come to this country for. Because we come to the United States for the American dream and we can not get out of poverty without a proper education.”

Due to a “high volume” of applications when the program opened, users received error messages, the Arizona Free News reported.

Save Our Schools Arizona, an organization that advocates for public schools, petitioned to put Ducey’s expansion of the school choice program on the general election ballot. The effort against the school choice program failed in September after the organization failed to collect enough signatures.

“For decades, Arizona’s public schools have gone chronically underfunded by our state leaders,” Save Our Schools Arizona said in a statement. “We applaud Hobbs for sweeping universal voucher funds and harmful results-based funding to add $198 million in addition base-level support. School districts will be able to use these desperately-needed funds to raise teacher pay and provide critical resources and extracurriculars for all 1.1 million Arizona students.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevin Gemeroy, an Arizona parent and member of Education for All, was able to take his son out of a remote learning environment and enter him into an education that best addressed his dyslexia, Gemeroy told the DCNF. Since, Gemeroy has advocated for the school choice movement to help students who did not have the same opportunities his son had.

“I’m so grateful for what happened to us but I’m so sad for the families that don’t have the ability to buy their way out of it,” Gemeroy told the DCNF. “And ever since I’ve been advocating for school choice. There’s too much at stake for the kids.”

Hobbs’ office did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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This article was published by The Daily Caller and is reproduced with permission.

Arizona Governor’s Plan To Undo Nation’s Largest School Choice Program Will Harm Students, Advocates Say

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Newly-elected Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs’ plan to undo the nation’s most expansive school choice program could affect thousands of students and families who are already utilizing the state’s voucher program, school choice advocates told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Hobbs’ executive budget released Jan. 13 asked state legislators to reverse the state’s expansion of its school choice program which currently allows all Arizona students in grades K-12 to receive taxpayer-funded vouchers if they choose to leave or are already outside of the public education system. The proposal would have a severe negative impact on Arizona families already utilizing the school voucher program to pursue other educational opportunities, school choice advocates told the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: The School Choice Movement Is Picking Up Steam Across The Country)

“It’s an assault on the families and the parents,” Steve Smith, Arizona State Director of American Federation for Children (AFC), a group working toward school choice, told the DCNF. “Especially now when education options are needed more than ever in the wake of COVID-19. You must let these these families flourish. These programs have been a lifesaver to so many and to take that away or even threaten to take it away, it’s just flat out wrong.”

In July, former Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law creating the largest school voucher program in the country, making more than 1.1 million Arizona students in public and charter schools eligible to receive up to $7,000 in order to transfer schools. Under the previous program, disabled children, students living on American Indian reservations and students attending low-performing public schools were eligible for the taxpayer-funded vouchers.

As of Jan 9., more than 45,000 students have enrolled in the state’s school choice program, according to to Faith Prep Arizona, a group that advises families using the school choice program. Originally just one-third of Arizona students were eligible for the program, with about 11,800 students enrolled, according to the AZ Mirror.

Through the program, students can receive up to $7,000, enough to potentially cover a private school education, according to AZ Free News. Upon the opening of the program application, the state’s Department of Education reported that due to a “high volume” of applications, users may receive an error message when applying.

Reversing the school choice program could affect thousands across the state who are already utilizing the voucher program, Amy Carney, Scottsdale Unified governing board member and deputy director of Building Education for Students Together, a group focused on parental rights in education, told the DCNF.

“It’s unfortunate that Governor Hobbs is so ideologically blinded that she doesn’t understand or care why over 45,000 children are already benefiting from Arizona’s newly expanded Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program,” Carney told the DCNF. “Instead of threatening to tear apart a program helping children across our state, our governor should try to listen and learn why this is needed and use the information to strengthen our local public schools to better serve the children in our local communities.”

Save Our Schools Arizona, an organization that advocates for public schools, tried to halt Ducey’s expansion of the program in September but failed to collect enough signatures to place the issue on the general election ballot. The state’s current school choice program is estimated to cost Arizona tax-payers more than $140 million in the 2024 fiscal year, according to Hobbs’ executive budget.

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This article was published at Daily Caller and is reproduced with permission.