The state of Arizona is about to reclaim its title as the state with the most school choice in the nation once its governor signs a new bill into law that expands education savings accounts for all students K-12.
From Heritage:
"This session, let's expand school choice any way we can," declared Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in his State of the State address on Jan. 10, "Let's think big and find more ways to get kids into the school of their parents' choice. Send me the bills, and I'll sign them."
The Arizona Legislature on Friday night answered Ducey's call, passing a bill to expand eligibility for the state's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (also known as education savings accounts or ESAs) to all K-12 students.
Once signed into law, Arizona will reclaim its title as the state with the "most expansive ESA" policy in the nation.
This is a major win for Republicans, parents, and students in Arizona. No longer will students in Arizona be locked into a school solely based on zip code.
They are now funding families over funding school systems.
Once Ducey, a Republican, signs the ESA expansion into law, Arizona will regain its "most expansive ESA" distinction, because the accounts will be available to all students, regardless of what type of school they had been attending.
As a Goldwater Institute report demonstrated, the ESA policy especially benefits students from low-income families. The typical (non-special education) award of about $6,600 covers the median elementary private school tuition and about two-thirds of the median private high school tuition.
Although Arizona does not collect data about the income levels of participating families, the Goldwater Institute looked at data on the geographic distribution of participants and found that "ESA students come from school districts with above-average and below-average poverty rates at broadly equal rates and in virtually identical proportions as traditional public school students overall."
Additionally, the report found that "the highest concentrations of ESA usage actually occur in the most severely economically disadvantaged communities in Arizona." Eight out of the 10 districts with the highest share of ESA students statewide have higher-than-average rates of child poverty, and the top three have child poverty rates that are more than double the state average.
The ESAs are extremely popular. According to a Morning Consult survey, 66% of Arizonans and 75% of Arizona parents of K-12 students support the ESA policy.
75% of parents in Arizona are supportive of this policy. This is such a huge win for Republicans.
Conservatives across the nation need to side with parents and against teacher's unions like Arizona.
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