Hello John,
​

You must be doing something right when one of the country's most respected newspapers publishes not one, but two articles praising your accomplishments.

Arizona's success in dramatically expanding school choice was touted by the editors of The Wall Street Journal in a piece titled "School Choice Blooms in the Desert ([link removed]) ." And in a guest opinion titled "Can the GOP Become the Parents' Party? ([link removed]) ", Corey DeAngelis, a leading champion of school choice, writes that the bill passed last week by the Arizona Legislature was nothing short of monumental.

The message here is clear. Under Governor Doug Ducey’s leadership, Arizona kids have more access to the school that best fits their needs than ever before. Check out both articles below.


** Can the GOP Become the Parents’ Party?
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By passing a historic school-choice bill, Arizona Republicans say yes.

Corey DeAngelis
Wall Street Journal Editorial ([link removed])
June 27, 2022

Republicans across the country are calling themselves the Parents’ Party. Republicans in Arizona just proved they’re worthy of the name.

During his State of the State address in January, Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey told the Legislature: “This session, let’s expand school choice any way we can. . . . Send me the bills, and I’ll sign them.” Republican lawmakers were listening. Last week, on two party-line votes, the Arizona House and Senate passed a monumental school-choice bill, which will soon be delivered to the governor’s desk.

The state’s efforts come after what many have called the year of school choice. After months of power-hungry teachers’ unions fighting for school closings and political indoctrination in the classroom in 2021, 18 states chose to enact or expand programs to fund students instead of systems. Arizona just one-upped all of them.

Most of the nation’s existing school-choice initiatives are limited to certain students based on eligibility categories such as income or special needs. Arizona’s expanded program eliminates such distinctions by allowing all families to take most of the state portion of their children’s taxpayer-funded education dollars to the providers of their choosing. The funding—about $7,000 a student—will follow the child to an “education savings account” directed by his parents or guardians. The funds may be spent on any approved education expenditures, such as private-school tuition and fees, tutoring, instructional materials and curriculum.

Some Republicans in red states, such as Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Utah, locked arms with Democrats to block similar bills this year. But many policy makers are now learning that opposing parental rights in education could be political suicide. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds endorsed nine Republican candidates with school choice as a clear dividing line in nearly all of those races, and eight of them won their June primaries.

So far this year, 47 out of 59 candidates supported by the pro-school-choice American Federation for Children Action Fund and its affiliates have won their primaries or advanced to runoffs. Educational freedom is fast becoming a litmus test for Republican primary voters.

The winds have changed in Arizona, too. Last year, the Arizona House failed to pass a similar proposal to fund students instead of systems because three Republicans joined the Democrats to kill it. When the bill came up for a vote last week, those same Republicans did the right thing and sided with parents.

For far too long in K-12 education, the only special interest group has been the teachers unions. Now, there’s a new interest group—parents. They are never going to unsee what they saw in 2020 and 2021, and they’re going to fight to make sure they never feel powerless when it comes to their children’s education again. Policy makers would be wise to listen to them.

School choice is the only way to secure parental rights in education. The GOP has a golden opportunity to become the party for parents, but it won’t be able to hold on to that title by simply saying so. It will need to prove it. Arizona Republicans showed them how it’s done.


** School Choice Blooms in the Desert
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A bill in Arizona opens scholarship accounts to all students statewide.

Wall Street Journal Editorial Board ([link removed])
June 27, 2022
The school choice movement continues to gain support, and the latest breakthrough is legislation in Arizona that will expand the availability of education savings accounts for any K-12 student in the state who wants one.

Arizona was the first state to create an education savings account (ESA) program in 2011. But only some students can apply—such as those with disabilities, in low-performing schools, or who reside on an Indian reservation.

The new bill allows any of the state’s more than a million K-12 students to be eligible for more than $6,000 for education expenses, including private school tuition and curricular materials. Most other state programs cap the number of students, set income eligibility requirements, or require students to be enrolled in public schools to apply. Arizona’s program may be the nation’s broadest.

The bill also expands the use of ESA funds for transportation and such equipment as computers or other education technology. The scholarship money is funded by the state and equal to 90% of what the state would provide for charter-school students. It will follow students to the schools of their choice—private, charter, or traditional union-dominated district schools.

“Arizona has long been a pioneer in education choice. Now, with this historic expansion of ESAs, we’ll continue to charter the path for others to follow suit,” tweeted Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who has promoted school choice during his two terms and is expected to sign the legislation.

The bill is a striking political turnaround in a state where the teachers union advocacy group known as Save Our Schools spent big in 2018 to defeat a ballot measure to expand ESAs. Three House Republicans who opposed a smaller expansion of the state’s ESAs last year flipped and voted for the new bill.

One reason may be that Mr. Ducey’s budget includes more than $500 million in additional funding for public schools. That helped to blunt the familiar union claim that ESAs siphon money from public schools. But perhaps these Republicans also noticed that support for school choice has increased since the pandemic.

Parents discovered that district officials and unions often weren’t responsive to their concerns on school closures, the curriculum, and mask mandates, as Corey DeAngelis writes nearby. Recent primary election victories by reform challengers in Iowa against lawmakers who rejected Gov. Kim Reynolds’s ESA reform bill may be concentrating minds elsewhere.

Govs. Reynolds and Ducey are right to take this political moment to push for school choice expansions that will build a larger constituency for the programs. When unions that dominate school governance realize they don’t have a monopoly on education finance, they may do more to improve the schools they run. And if they don’t, parents will have the freedom and resources to do better by their children.

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