The New Jim Crow: School Segregation via ESA Vouchers Save Our Schools Arizona Network was proud to host “Speaking of Schools – The New Jim Crow: School Segregation via ESA Vouchers.” This powerful discussion covers public education’s key role in American society and outlines how the push for school vouchers is rooted in the decades-old …
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Myths Vs. Truth: Universal ESA Vouchers Read our latest blog to cut through the myths and get to the truth about Arizona’s failed $1 billion universal voucher experiment. Special interests across Arizona and the nation are spreading rampant misinformation about universal ESA vouchers. But the facts are simple: Vouchers hurt public schools, the 1 million …
Funding AZ’s Future with Bake Sales and Wishlists Year after year, Arizona communities are forced to fill the funding void left by the Arizona legislature. The dearth of adequate state funding for K12 education has forced local communities to find other sources of education funding – or to go without entirely, creating massive inequities statewide. …
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Water Skiing, Chicken Coops & Home Gyms: ESA Vouchers Fund Endless String of Questionable Purchases Universal ESA vouchers are picking Arizona schools to the bone – all in service of ludicrous purchases, fly-by-night schools, unvetted vendors, dangerous curricula and indoctrination academies. Last week, the Governor’s office thoroughly outlined the dire economic ramifications of ESA vouchers: …
ESA Vouchers: Zero Accountability By Design Arizona’s ESA voucher program is the least accountable in the entire nation. Read on to discover why Save Our Schools Arizona has led the fight in Arizona and across the nation against this unaccountable program. Arizona’s ESA (Empowerment Scholarship Account) voucher system is the least accountable in the entire …
Public Schools: The Keystone of Democracy In his eighth and final annual address (now known as the State of the Union), George Washington had a clear message for Congress: “The common education … of our youth from every quarter well deserves attention…. In a republic what species of knowledge can be equally important and what …
FACT CHECK: Who Actually Foots the Bill for Universal ESA Vouchers? Education funding in Arizona is a complicated, interconnected financial system intended to benefit our entire state. Universal ESA vouchers have thrown a massive wrench into the school finance system, negatively impacting Arizona schools and students. But misinformation is rampant – read on to cut …
AZ’s Public Schools Are in a State of Emergency Arizona’s public schools are facing an unprecedented crisis. We call upon our state’s leaders to name this disaster as what it truly is: a State of Emergency for Arizona’s Public Schools. Here are the facts: School funding has been cut to the bone. Arizona remains 48th …
FACT CHECK: No, ESA Vouchers Do Not Save the State Money! Last week, the Arizona Department of Education issued an astronomical updated estimate projecting universal ESA vouchers will cost the state $900 million in 2024 alone. These still unbudgeted, ballooning costs will starve public schools by diverting funds and bankrupt the state. Based on these …
FACT CHECK: No, ESA Vouchers Do Not Save the State Money! Read More »
Hobbs’ Budget Fails to Deliver for Arizona Kids The budget negotiated by Gov. Hobbs and Arizona Republicans last week is deeply disappointing. Universal Vouchers Left Unchecked With this budget, Gov. Hobbs abandoned her vow to repeal or slow the growth of the universal ESA voucher program. This inaction will accelerate the dismantling of public education, …
Vouchers Defund Public Schools — Even When Enrollment Remains the Same Ducey’s 2022 universal ESA voucher expansion is already on track to bankrupt the state, diverting over $550 million from local public schools this school year alone. Are Students Leaving Public Schools? The short answer is “no.” New K12 enrollment data released by the AZ …
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Where’s the Money? With all this talk of (desperately needed) teacher pay raises that will cost the state $700 million a year, and budget season inching ever closer on the horizon, we have to ask the obvious question: where is the money? The brutal truth: Our state has no money. Why? Decades of tax cuts …
The rollout of the Arizona legislature’s ill-conceived universal ESA voucher program has been an unmitigated disaster that threatens to bankrupt the state. The cost of the voucher program will exceed $500 million this year and continue growing as more and more private school and homeschool families take the entitlement. At the current rate, the combined cost of ESA and STO vouchers will exceed $1 billion by 2025.
Supt. Horne: AZ’s Self-Anointed Culture Warrior Newly-elected Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is using the Arizona Department of Education to wage a manufactured culture war that aims to discredit public education and drive teachers and staff away from classrooms. Horne is taking his marching orders from out-of-state special interests like the Devos-Funded American Federation …
Supt. Horne Serving Special Interests Over AZ Kids Only three months in office, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has all but removed “Public” from his title. Horne is radically shifting the direction of the Arizona Department of Education to an anti-public school, voucher-pushing agency focused on “selling” vouchers for elite private schools across the …
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AZ Vouchers Lead to State-Funded Hate Taxpayer-funded private schools in Arizona are discriminating against children and families due to their LGBTQ status, underscoring the fact that ESA vouchers are being used to prop up state-funded hate. More stories of state-funded hate and discrimination continue to come to light as details emerge about how universal ESA …
Arizona’s Schools Face a $4.5 Billion Deficit Reports show that Arizona schools are facing a $4.5 billion annual deficit as compared to other states. According to the most recent data from the US Census Bureau and Education Law Center, Arizona students are receiving at least $4,200 less yearly than their national peers, despite federal COVID …
Universal ESA Vouchers Wide Open for Fraud & Abuse As Superintendent Tom Horne brags about approving thousands of ESA voucher expenditures without required receipts, Arizona is funneling approximately $600 million a year (and growing) to a voucher program that lacks nearly all of the accountability and transparency required of public schools receiving taxpayer dollars. When …
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Bounce Houses? Espresso Machines? Home Gyms? ESA Vouchers are Being Used as a Taxpayer ATM ESA vouchers are so unregulated that they’ve become a taxpayer-funded ATM for homeschool and private school families. With reports of misuse and wildly inappropriate expenditures, plus JLBC reports of an “unheard of” $200 million in unbudgeted costs, Governor Hobbs’ call …
$200M in Uncovered Costs for Universal ESA Vouchers Ducey’s 2022 universal ESA voucher expansion is threatening to bankrupt the state. Last Friday, a report from the nonpartisan JLBC showed that the expansion has already racked up $200 million in entirely unbudgeted, uncovered costs, and projects these costs will balloon to $376 million by 2024. Report …
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Vouchers Fund Discriminatory Private Schools Recently, an Arizona Christian school fired a teacher for speaking out against discrimination towards LGBTQ students. The school is now embroiled in a lawsuit, but state-funded ESA voucher dollars continue to flow to the school, underscoring the fact that ESA vouchers are resulting in state-sanctioned and state-funded discrimination. Teacher Sues …
“Alt-Schools Fiasco”: Arizona’s Universal ESA Voucher Scheme Will Bankrupt the State When Governor Ducey and the Republican-led Arizona Legislature passed universal ESA vouchers earlier this year, public school advocates warned them it would siphon hundreds of millions away from local public schools in year one. Arizona lawmakers insisted the program would be thinly utilized and …
“Alt-Schools Fiasco”: Arizona’s Universal ESA Voucher Scheme Will Bankrupt the State Read More »
Arizona Voucher Program Grows by 400%, Stripping $300 Million from AZ Public Schools Due to last-minute legislative deceit, decades of pressure from special interests, and persistent, deliberate defunding of public education, Arizona now has the largest private school voucher program in the nation. Ducey’s Worst-in-the-Nation ESA Voucher Scheme Governor Ducey and the Arizona Legislature passed …
Arizona Voucher Program Grows by 400%, Stripping $300 Million from AZ Public Schools Read More »
AZ School Letter Grades on the Rise Recently, Arizona’s public schools received letter grades from the AZ State Board of Education for the first time in 3 years. The results show incredible growth for public schools across the state. Scores Show Dramatic Improvement According to the data, 70% of Arizona’s public schools are now rated …
School’s Out for Summer—But Teachers are Leaving for Longer Arizona’s public schools are in the midst of an ever worsening crisis. Our greatest assets—our highly-skilled and well-trained educators—are fleeing the profession in droves statewide. According to a national NEA survey issued this Spring, a staggering 55% of educators nationwide are thinking about leaving the profession …
School’s Out for Summer—But Teachers are Leaving for Longer Read More »
School Takeovers Hurt Kids & Communities HB2808, a bill moving through the Arizona state legislature, will force school takeovers and closures based on standardized test scores. This will punish struggling schools and disproportionately harm low-income, rural and Native communities instead of giving them the resources they desperately need. This massive piece of legislation has long-term …
Vouchers Hurt: Inequity, Discrimination & Segregation Despite enduring unpopularity with Arizona voters and poor outcomes for students, Arizona lawmakers remain myopically focused on expanding private school vouchers at all costs. Pushed by out-of-state special interests, these lawmakers ignore the reality that vouchers hurt Arizona students and communities. This is the second in a 4-part blog …
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Vouchers Hurt: The Truth about Academic Outcomes Despite enduring unpopularity with Arizona voters and poor outcomes for students, Arizona lawmakers remain myopically focused on expanding private school vouchers at all costs. Pushed by out-of-state special interests, these lawmakers ignore the reality that vouchers hurt our students and our communities. This is the first in a …
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Ducey Lies to Expand Vouchers with Covid-Relief Funds Governor Ducey has long prioritized expanding private school vouchers over funding public schools, so it comes as no surprise that he is misusing federal Covid relief dollars to create yet another form of voucher. Arizona public schools have already lost billions in education funding over the past …
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Should Test Scores Determine School Funding? Recently, Mike O’Neil from KTAR’s “Think Tank” sat down with educators Raquel Mamani and Beth Lewis to discuss the challenges teachers are facing as they work through the third school year impacted by the Covid pandemic. The educators agreed that teaching in Arizona is more difficult than ever and …
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Copyright © 2020 Save Our Schools Arizona Network. All rights reserved.
