Friends and foes alike are wondering just what Governor Katie Hobbs was thinking when she agreed to a Sunday interview with Shannon Bream of FOX News.
In that interview, Hobbs “threw her parents under the bus,” according to one conservative pundit, when discussing her opposition to Arizona’s highly popular school choice effort, known as the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
.@KatieHobbs's parents spent their days working extra jobs to give her more educational opportunities through school choice
and then she uses it to smear them in a TV interview to get out of a tough question
disgustinghttps://t.co/hO5ukTBfn1
— Brian Anderson (@AZBrianAnderson) February 12, 2023
“Look,” said Hobbs in response to a question about the fact that she attended a private Catholic high school, “I grew up in a working class family – this was well before any of this public assistance for private schools existed and my parents made that choice. I begged them to send me to public school. And we sacrificed a lot. There were times in my family when we were on food stamps and so it was the choice that they made, and they struggled to … to make that choice.”
“What I want is for every student in the state of Arizona no matter where they live to have access to high quality public education. And with this universal voucher system that’s not happening. Our schools are failing because we’re failing to invest,” continued Hobbs.
“Empowerment scholarship accounts give poor and middle-class parents the same choices that rich parents have always had,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne in response to Hobbs’ claim. “ESA’s will also result in better performance by traditional public schools because competition improves everyone. That is why the United States was prosperous, and the Soviet Union was poor. The United States had competition, which causes people to work hard. The Soviet Union had a government monopoly. As they used to say in Poland, we pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us. In that monopoly environment, that lacks competition, people produce little and the country as a result is poor. The same is true of schools. If the schools are afraid of losing students to private or charter schools, they will make a greater effort to please parents with good academic outcomes.”
“Hobbs herself just made the case for crucial school choice programs like ESAs when it comes to helping lower and middle income families,” said Steve Smith, Arizona State Director of the American Federation for Children. “I bet her parents would have loved to have used an ESA to cover her tuition at the private Catholic school she attended growing up when her family was on food stamps. This simple yet amazing education option is designed for low-income and working class families like hers allowing them to reallocate their education dollars towards a school they think is best for their child. Katie Hobbs went to a private school, and it took, in her words, great sacrifice from her parents and she also credits that schooling to helping her become who she us today. Now it’s her obligation to support ESAs to help other families who otherwise could never afford to attend a private school or access other high quality educational opportunities.
Arizona lawmakers also weighed-in on the comments.
“@Governor Hobbs’ parents struggled to provide her with an education THEY thought best. It’s unfortunate she wants AZ families to choose between being on food stamps or sending their kids to the school they choose. Let’s help families. Give them a choice, not push them down,” tweeted Rep. Matt Gress.
“Booed at the Phoenix Open, health nominee failed in the senate committee and called out for her hypocrisy on school choice on national Sunday show” tweeted Rep. Austin Smith. Bad weekend for Hobbs. Is there anyone who thinks she’s actually an effective leader?”
BREAKING: The most popular governor in Arizona history Katie Hobbs getting booed in her own state pic.twitter.com/0Pz2Znwgfm
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 11, 2023
Hobbs also claimed that the Empowerment Scholarship Account program expansion, which was created through a bill sponsored by Speaker of the House Ben Toma and passed last year, was “going to bankrupt our state…” She claimed that “many independent analyses have shown that, and we’re not calling for a repeal of the entire program we’re only calling for a repeal of the expansion.”
Bream cited a study done by the Common Sense Institute after the expansion was passed which found:
- Public school enrollment experienced significant declines during the pandemic period and is now more than 70,000 students below FY2019 budget projections. This enrollment decline generates over $500 million in annual statewide savings.
- Based on current data, the increase in annual ESA program costs attributable to universal eligibility is $197.9 million. Existing program costs add another approximately $179 million, for a total cost of about $377 million. While the cost of the ESA’s program under universal eligibility exceeds the additional $33 million initially appropriated by the Legislature, the Arizona Department of Education likely has sufficient excess funding to more than cover the difference, due to continued post-pandemic enrollment declines. CSI estimates that, as of quarter 1, ADE data suggest an $8 million end-of-year Agency General Fund budget surplus, given system-wide enrollment trends.
- Although it is increasingly unlikely that student enrollment will return to pre-pandemic levels, State policymakers have continued to fund the statewide K-12 funding formula as though it will. This has resulted in massive state General Fund surpluses ($389 million last fiscal year alone – or enough to pay for more than 33,000 Empowerment Scholarship Accounts) and will help support ESA cost growth. This analysis does not contemplate additional local funding and other fund savings from these enrollment declines.
- Based on data from the first quarter, ADE likely has sufficient General Fund appropriations to cover the costs of ESAs within its existing budget. ESA program cost growth should be considered within a broader trend in changing parent behavior and student enrollment after 2020, and the implications of those choices on public expenditures.
Hobbs backtracked a bit, and then argued that “80 percent of students still continue to choose an Arizona public school system and they are being robbed of those resources, and that is creating an unequal playing field where those resources are not going to schools that need it the most.”
However, a Goldwater Institute study found that private education may actually be helping to keep public school funding afloat. The report How Private Education Can Help Funding for Public School Students found, “A robust landscape of private education is linked not to the financial hollowing of states’ public K-12 sectors, but rather to increased levels of public school per pupil funding.”
As broke as the state might be someday, Hobbs also promoted her plan to expand a state-funded scholarship program to include some illegal migrant (DREAMERs) high school graduates.
Hobbs wants to use the state-funded Arizona Promise Program, which is supposed to support low-income students who aren’t fully covered by Pell grants and other federal financial aid to assist the students who are present in the United States illegally. Hobbs’ wants to use the money because illegal migrant students, or DREAMERs, aren’t eligible for federal financial aid because of their illegal immigration status.