On Sunday, June 9, an organization that calls itself Save Our Schools (SOS) mass emailed what constitutes its latest salvo on the war against parental school choice.
This time they are asking their readers to contact Speaker Toma and President Petersen, and demand “Voucher Reform,” which is code for ESA defunding, with the pretext that it will solve the current budget shortfall. This is what they want voters to do:
Demand Voucher Reform
House Speaker Toma: 602-926-3298
Senate President Petersen 602-926-4136
Governor Hobbs: 602-542-4331
We agree that these three individuals should be contacted, but to request, not demand, that as much of the ESA program be preserved as is fiscally possible. Here is why.
The SOS communication contains so many half-truths and outright lies that it is difficult to determine where to begin. For the sake of brevity, we will mention only a few.
The first, blatant lie that the reader will notice is found in the SOS’s characterization of the ESA program.
“…the program has zero guardrails, zero accountability, and zero transparency…”
This is patently false. In fact, anyone who has actually read the regulations associated with ESA’s will agree that there is plenty of guardrails, accountability and transparency. All they have to do is go to https://www.azed.gov/esa/resources
Another blatant lie is contained in a statement attributed to a third-grade school teacher named Stacy Brosius, and used to justify defunding ESA’s
“Over the years I’ve watched as the funding for public schools is chopped and chopped again,”
That lie is so huge that it should be submitted to every Pinocchio contest in AZ, since Brosius would be a sure winner.
The fact is that school funding in general, and K-12 in particular, has been increasing by leaps and bounds over the last few years. The increases have been so huge that in 2023 the legislature’s education appropriation far exceeded the voter-imposed Aggregate Expenditure Limit. In order to make sure their generosity reached the school district schools; the legislature invoked a loophole in the legislation that allows them to waive the voter-imposed Aggregate Expenditure Limit by a super-majority vote of both chambers. With substantial support from Republican members, the legislature succeeded in overriding the limit.
It should be noted that this Aggregate Expenditure Limit is not peanuts. Here is how it works. Every year, the limit is calculated by taking the previous year level of funding and applying these increases:
- The percentage increase in the number of students
- The percentage increase in the cost of living.
- An extra 10%, regardless of enrollment or inflation status.
How many people reading this material get an automatic cost-of-living raise, plus an extra 10% raise every year?
Teachers like Brosius, and others of the SOS’s ilk, should be shouting from the rooftops their appreciation for the Republican-controlled legislature’s efforts to increase funding to the maximum consistent with sane budget policy, instead of bitching and moaning about not enough funding.
Those folks who are considering putting ESA’s on the budgetary chopping block as a means of balancing the budget should be aware of how infinitesimal an amount that will be. Even if we were to believe the numbers provided by the SOS, and we were to scrap the whole ESA program, we would be looking at a “saving” of less than 2%.
There is a misguided belief, fed by unscrupulous individuals, that the current opposition to ESA’s is to save taxpayer money because universal ESA access is way too much. These same unscrupulous individuals claim that they are OK with ESA’s in their initial form, which was only to benefit students with special needs.
This is all Bovine Scat. Democrats, including Hobbs and SOS types, have vehemently opposed ESA’s from day one. Here is how the votes in the legislature have been cast long before the legislature passing of universal access in 2022.
| YEAR – BILL NUMBER |
WHAT THE BILL DOES |
FINAL VOTE |
HOW DEMOCRATS VOTED (*) |
| 2011 – SB1553 | Establishes rules and requirements for SPECIAL NEEDS children | SENATE = 21-7-2 HOUSE = 40-19-1 | NO = 7 YES = 0 NO = 19 YES = 0 |
| 2014 – HB2150 | Expands eligibility to children of eligible MILITARY families |
SENATE = 17-10-3 HOUSE = 38-18-4 |
NO = 9 YES = 0 NO = 18 YES = 3 |
| 2017 – SB1431 | Gradually expands eligibility to K-12 Increases assistance to children of LOW INCOME FAMILIES |
SENATE = 16-13-1 HOUSE = 31-28-1 |
NO = 12 YES = 0 NO = 24 YES = 0 |
(*) NOTE: If you go to azleg.gov to fact-check this material, you can see that Hobbs voted NO on all three bills, once as representative, and twice as senator.
Additional Reading: A lot has been written about the ESA program and how it really works. Here are some examples for further reading:
Horne Schools Hobbs On Policies Involving ESA School Choice Program
Those folks who are inclined to contact elected officials may do so via telephone as shown at the beginning of this piece, or by emails as follows:
Speaker Toma btoma@azleg.gov
President Petersen wpetersen@azleg.gov
Governor Hobbs https://azgovernor.gov/contact/form/contact-governor-hobbs
SOS is asking for REFORM and accountability, not conspiracy “code” for defunding. Public-school DVUSD is governed by an ultra-conservative born-again Republican with 100% transparency & a personal open-book policy at a moment’s notice. Many of our neighbor public-school claim the same. In fact, these Superintendents meet for prayer, asking God for wisdom and Bible devotions monthly. The taxpayers should expect full transparency and accountability for all schools: home moms, charter, micro, strip mall schools, etc. The abuse of these vouchers is killing our state and public ed. The recent fake students to the tune of $600k and Lego purchases in excess of $1million dollars. TIP OF THE ICEBERG. My kids grew up with Legos. I shopped garage sales and my 32 year-old ( doctor) received the Star Destroyer for his Christmas present. This abuse spending under the guise of “parents’ rights” desperately requires REFORM. Checks and balances. We don’t run our households like this and certainly not businesses. How can NY GOP continue to support such nonsense with other people’s (tax) monies? It’s outrageous. As Christians who bow the knee to Christ, we believe the Lord will hold us accountable for what He has given to us on this earth for steward and governship. GOP, we MUST do better. Our most vulnerable public-school children deserve a bright future and someone to fight for them. Thank you.
Thank you for posting my comments. Edit: “My GOP”. Sorry, fat thumbs and old lady eyes.
Sometime back I saw an account of where the most ESA recipients reside. It was the San Carlos Apache Reservation. If you listen to these SOS liars you would think it was rich people buying pianos.
Another wild-eyed liberal Marxist.
The SOS twitter account is just there for the purpose of lying to the leftist sheep in order excite them. Sad.
It’s how much of the left wing mainstream operates. It isn’t journalism. It is intentional programing of simple people’s neural networks.
Government controlled schools are failing our students. Too much indoctrination and too little education. Poor teaches are protected by the unions at the students expense. Competition between ESA schools and government indoctrination camps is good, it forces both to be proactive toward improvement with parents being the final arbiter.
ESA must be like a plank in the government schools eye! My grandsons are living proof ESA is very necessary for various legit reasons. Govt schools like control & lockstep order and are feeling hugely threatened! Well wonderful…budget more efficiently and get back to authentic American curriculum!
My youngest grandson just finished hot water bath canning his own cucumbers grown in his raised garden! With what inflation is doing to us all, he’s actually learning the science of gardening among many other hands in life lessons! I can’t say enough praise for ESA & I tell everyone I meet! What are govt schools worried about?! Makes no sense.