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The Arizona Legislature recently voted to dismantle public education by passing universal empowerment scholarship accounts (ESA) vouchers. This defies the will of 1.5 million Arizona voters, who overwhelmingly rejected this dangerous expansion in 2018 through Proposition 305.
This new version of voucher expansion goes farther than the 2018 bill, extending availability to parents of students who are already attending private schools or being home-schooled. These students are not escaping underperforming private schools as the GOP propaganda would have you believe. HB2853 gives the parents $7,000 on a debit card for discretionary use.
The catch? $7,000 doesn’t come close to covering the cost of high-quality private schooling, which isn’t available in rural areas. So, most students will remain in public schools — schools whose funding is drained by this outrageous legislative action. Meanwhile, wealthy parents who are already comfortably paying private school tuition get $7000 in free money from Arizona taxpayers.
Vouchers are an irresponsible use of taxpayer funds with little to no accountability or transparency. Private schools don’t have to show their finances no matter how much public funding they receive. Private schools and home schools never have to demonstrate academic achievement.
The vast majority of voucher funding will be an entitlement for wealthy families already enrolled in private academies. Private schools can reject students based on gender, religion, and sexual orientation. The origin of vouchers is the Jim Crow South in response to the federal government enforcing school integration. Special education students lose their IDEA disability rights when accepting vouchers.
Why should Arizonans care? For generations, experts have proven the correlation between successful public schools and a community’s safety. In addition to preparing children for productive work and fulfilling lives, public education accomplishes certain collective missions to promote the common good. These include preparing youth to become responsible citizens, forging a common culture, and reducing inequalities in American society.
American businesses claim that public schools must survive and thrive for our country’s growth. So, throughout the country, they work with politicians to help schools teach and prepare kids for the workforce.
While teaching high school, I took a professional development course to teach cooperative learning that enables small groups of students to work together on a typical assignment. Groups of kids with different talents worked to complete an assignment together as they would in the workplace.
Click to Volunteer or donate today to Stop the Voucher Expansion. |
Our national security requires strong public schools. America must teach every child to prepare for the future, including science, technology, and math, to compete with China, Russia and other threats to world order. A chief reason for public education cited by Jefferson and other early leaders was the need to produce citizens who would keep the nation secure from inside and outside threats.
Please pick up a petition opposing HB2853 (Universal ESA Voucher Expansion) at Pima County Democratic Headquarters and find 15 signatures or click here to learn more. It must reach its goal for signatures by September 24.
What happens if we lose public schools in our communities? Find out here.
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