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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.
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