Canvassers switched red shirts for yellow ones before hitting the streets to knock on doors. The group of mostly teachers and parents, part of this year’s #RedforEd movement, donned the yellow “No on Prop 305” shirts to continue the fight over education funding.
“Seeing a bill come through that would take millions of dollars out of our public school system is not the direction we want to go,” said Nikki Lee, a mother of three public-school students and volunteer with Save Our Schools, a statewide grassroots group advocating for public education.
Prop 305 would expand the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, referred to colloquially as school vouchers. The ESA program started in 2011 to provide educational options other than public school for children with disabilities. Taxpayer dollars that would have otherwise been spent on a public school was provided instead to parents to cover tuition and costs for private, parochial or home school supplies and/or tuition. A later expansion included students attending failing schools or districts, in foster care, in military families, residing on an Indian Reservation or siblings of current or previous ESA recipients. Passing Prop 305 would increase the expansion further, making about 30,000 scholarships available by 2023 and practically all families with school-age children eligible to apply—increasing the pot of money siphoned from the public school system.
In April 2017, the Arizona Legislature passed the ESA expansion and Ducey signed it into law. The leaders of SOS collected enough signatures to get a referendum on the ballot for voter approval of the law, stalling the expansion.
Save Our Schools co-founder Dawn Penich-Thacker says if just six students leave a school, the money that leaves is the equivalent of a teacher’s salary, which could lead to massive layoffs. “Our public schools are already starving,” she said.
In fiscal year 2017, the Arizona Department of Education estimated 3,100 student were enrolled in the ESA program, although the current cap is at about 5,500 students annually through 2019. About $46 million went into the program in fiscal year 2017, according to the Department of Education.
Rep. Mark Finchem (R-LD11) voted for the expansion when it was in the state House. He says that public education should be about educating children with public funds, not supporting a “one-size-fits-all” public school system. The way he sees it, the public schools are inadequate, and students are not learning what they need to be an informed electorate.
“The charters and private schools—it’s a fundamentally different response: When you ask kids simple questions about the three branches of government, they know,” he said. “They know about the origins of the Constitution. They know the difference between Democracy and Republic. So if they’re not learning that in a public school system…we’ve got lots of options out there.”
Taking more of a free-market approach, Finchem says that private schools offer a better education because they are more concerned with delivering a higher quality product to appeal to families. Because public schools get funding regardless, they do not have an incentive to perform as well. He said his constituents with school-age children tell him they’re not happy with the public school system and the ESA expansion would “empower parents to make a choice that is right for their child.”
“If the public school system feels threatened by that, they need to up their game,” he said.
Finchem also doesn’t think that the public schools will be drastically affected, pointing out that the number of people currently using the ESAs hasn’t reached the existing cap. He said if enough students were to leave certain public schools, some schools may have to close and the students can be consolidated into the remaining schools.
Finchem said the times are changing and education should be able to as well.
“You have to be able to free yourself from models that have been around since the early 1900s,” he said.
Rep. Todd Clodfelter (R-LD10), one of four Republicans who voted against the expansion in 2017, said he’s worried it would deplete the general fund of money for public schools. Like Finchem, Clodfelter agrees the public school system isn’t great but he argues it can’t just be abandoned for something new.
“Taking money out of the public pool that we all agreed on just doesn’t sit right with me,” he said.
Ultimately, he said he voted against the expansion and is against 305 because his constituents are against it.
Clodfelter is also concerned oversight of ESA funds isn’t clear in the bill, and that if the expansion becomes a voter-approved law, it would be very hard for the Legislature to make any changes in the future.
He also said an expanded pool could make it harder for kids with disabilities to access the ESAs. Penich-Thacker, from Save Our Schools, says this is a concern for parents of children with special needs who she talks to and who volunteer with Save Our Schools.
On this point, Rep. Finchem says the students with special needs will still have priority because that’s the way the current law was written. But nowhere in the expansion bill, which would become law with the passage of 305, does it give priority to children with special needs or any other category of student.
This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2018.
“Save Our Schools co-founder Dawn Penich-Thacker says if just six students leave a school, the money that leaves is the equivalent of a teacher’s salary,”
Thanks for that little math equation Dawn. So if 6 students make payroll on one teacher, let’s say at $40,000 annually, that’s $6700 per student. So in a class of 30, public schools take in at a minimum, $201,000 or enough for salaries of 5 teachers. They hire 1 and spend the rest on administration.
Starvation? Oh the humanity!
While I can understand that one does not want to reward the worst or the failing, it is quite doubtful that taking money away from public schools will improve them. If they are failing, cutting the budget is exactly the WRONG thing to do. I don’t (and won’t ever) have kids in any school, and I don’t want my tax dollars to be diverted from where they are needed the most.
I have a friend who has steadfastly refused to ‘throw money at the problem’, but now, all of a sudden, he’s willing to try ANYTHING – anything, including throwing money at private schools! except throwing money at public schools!
Stop talking about schools and start talking about kids. Affluent families can afford to move their kids from a failing government school to a private school, and the government school no longer gets money to educate that child. But a poor family doesn’t have that choice. Their child has to sit in the failing school, not receiving an education. if there is a program to give him the same chance more affluent families have, why wouldn’t the money go with him? The government school no longer has the expense, and therefore doesn’t need the money. It’s about kids, people. Schools are not a jobs program for adults.
As a retired teacher, I can see where this bill wants to go. Although some private schools are good (the best ones are in wealthy districts), they can teach nonsense like intelligent design, anti-environmental propaganda, and narrow Christian viewpoints, and get away with it. Many do. A well-rounded education is what a kid needs. When they get to be adults, they can think for themselves and become productive members of society. Some private schools don’t want that to happen, especially the think for themselves part. Public schools are accountable for what they teach and they should be. If we want a democratic society, we should all support public schools.
We just saw the public school kids pounding on the door of the Supreme Court. That is not a democratic society. It is mob rule trying to overthrow a Representative Republic. It would also stand to reason that they try to destroy the Electoral College. Public graduates have been convinced it robbed Al Gore in 2000.
My two cents worth…Here is a public school supporter with a national microphone whipping up the crowd.
Hillary Clinton is back, this time denouncing civility.
Talking with CNNs Christiane Amanpour this week, she defended the unprecedented protests, threats and harassment that roiled the Brett Kavanaugh nomination.
You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about, Clinton said. Thats why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate, thats when civility can start again.
In other words, sure, were acting like toddlers now, but well be grown-ups once were in charge.
If you want a democratic society you must act like one. Just because you don’t get your way, you amp up the violence? No. She should be denounced by her party or is it also brain dead?
On the other hand you could always put forth an economic plan that would create jobs, pay down debt, support law enforcement efforts to reduce crime, and return our health insurance premiums to pre Obama levels.
But that would require hard work, and viable plans. Something they just won’t do.