- Oct 17, 2011
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Ignoring voters, Arizona approves nation’s largest school voucher scheme
In 2018, the voters of Arizona made clear how they felt about a plan to use public money to fund private education: They voted against it, or as Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts described it: “Actually, they didn’t just reject it. They stoned the thing, then they tossed it into the street and ran over it. Then they backed up and ran over it again.”
Despite the nearly 2-to-1 rejection, the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature has just approved the nation’s largest school voucher scheme, one that makes every Arizona student eligible for taxpayer-supplied funds to attend private and religious schools as well for online education, home schooling, tutors, etc.
One thing missing from the legislation: any kind of accountability that would let the public know what the schools getting the voucher money are actually doing. Yes, students entering the voucher program would have to take a national standardized test annually — but the state won’t see the scores, and unless a particular school has at least 50 voucher students attending, parents can’t see even aggregate scores. That doesn’t worry House Majority Leader Ben Toma, the bill’s prime mover, who said accountability would come from parents who “know what’s best for their children.” [presumably using a form of parental ESP to determine how good a school is]
State Sen. Christine Marsh (D) tried to add accountability measures to the legislation last week but failed. According to 12 News, she wanted amendments that would have required private schools taking in students with vouchers to do things such as check the fingerprints of employees and implement academic standards and testing.
[They don't currently require background checks at private schools?!?]
There's also some read between the lines stuff about how Arizona has some of the lowest per pupil spending in the public schools. They've been throttling the public schools off, trying to choke them to death. But now they will raise the spending caps to help make these vouchers bigger.
In 2018, the voters of Arizona made clear how they felt about a plan to use public money to fund private education: They voted against it, or as Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts described it: “Actually, they didn’t just reject it. They stoned the thing, then they tossed it into the street and ran over it. Then they backed up and ran over it again.”
Despite the nearly 2-to-1 rejection, the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature has just approved the nation’s largest school voucher scheme, one that makes every Arizona student eligible for taxpayer-supplied funds to attend private and religious schools as well for online education, home schooling, tutors, etc.
One thing missing from the legislation: any kind of accountability that would let the public know what the schools getting the voucher money are actually doing. Yes, students entering the voucher program would have to take a national standardized test annually — but the state won’t see the scores, and unless a particular school has at least 50 voucher students attending, parents can’t see even aggregate scores. That doesn’t worry House Majority Leader Ben Toma, the bill’s prime mover, who said accountability would come from parents who “know what’s best for their children.” [presumably using a form of parental ESP to determine how good a school is]
State Sen. Christine Marsh (D) tried to add accountability measures to the legislation last week but failed. According to 12 News, she wanted amendments that would have required private schools taking in students with vouchers to do things such as check the fingerprints of employees and implement academic standards and testing.
[They don't currently require background checks at private schools?!?]
There's also some read between the lines stuff about how Arizona has some of the lowest per pupil spending in the public schools. They've been throttling the public schools off, trying to choke them to death. But now they will raise the spending caps to help make these vouchers bigger.
