Proposition 212 asks Arizona voters whether our state should reverse one of the greatest educational freedom victories in our history by ending universal school choice for many future families. Before we answer that question, we should ask another: Why have more than 100,000 Arizona families voluntarily chosen Empowerment Scholarship Accounts?
For years, our state has been recognized as the national leader in educational freedom. Through Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA), parents have been given something they should have always had: the ability to choose the education that best fits their child—not simply the one assigned by their ZIP code. Now that freedom is under attack. A ballot measure would end universal school choice for many future families by limiting ESA eligibility based on household income. Its supporters call it fairness. I believe it is a step backward.
This debate is not about Republicans or Democrats. It is not about public schools versus private schools. It is about one simple question:
Who knows a child better—the government or that child’s parents?
When Arizona expanded ESA eligibility in 2022, approximately 11,000 students were participating in the program. Today, that number has grown to more than 100,000 students.
Pause for a moment and let that sink in.
One hundred thousand Arizona families don’t make the same life-changing decision by accident. They make it because school choice filled a need that wasn’t being met. Instead of asking why parents are choosing educational freedom, perhaps we should ask why so many felt they needed it in the first place. As the co-founder of Elite Sports Academy and an advocate for educational freedom, I have had the privilege of speaking with countless Arizona families over the years. Those conversations have reinforced something I have always believed: there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all education. I know that not only as a school founder, but as a mother.
I have three children. They are completely different. They learn differently. They communicate differently. They are motivated by different things, and they dream different dreams. No parent would expect three completely different children to thrive in exactly the same educational environment. Why should our education system?
For many students, traditional public schools are an excellent fit, and they should continue serving those students well. But they are not the right answer for every child.
Elite Sports Academy was created because we saw a group of students whose needs were largely overlooked: student-athletes striving to compete at the highest levels. These students should not have to choose between pursuing athletic excellence and receiving an outstanding education. Spending seven or eight hours in a traditional classroom before beginning hours of training each evening simply doesn’t work for many aspiring athletes. So we built something different.
Our students spend half of their day in rigorous academics and the other half training, developing athletically, strengthening their minds and bodies, building character, cultivating discipline, and learning to lead, persevere, win with humility, and lose with grace. We’re not asking every family to choose our model. We’re simply asking that every family be allowed to choose the model that best fits their child.
One of the greatest misconceptions about school choice is that it only serves wealthy families. Our experience tells a very different story. The overwhelming majority of our students rely on ESA funding to attend Elite Sports Academy. Our families come from diverse racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Many simply would not be able to access the educational environment their children need without educational choice. That is exactly why preserving educational freedom matters. For many Arizona families, school choice isn’t a political issue—it is the difference between having an educational option and having none.
There was a time when children of color were denied access to public schools. Today, we face a different challenge. Instead of preventing families from getting in, we risk preventing many from getting out—from choosing the educational environment that best serves their children. While the circumstances are different, the principle is similar: educational opportunity should expand, not contract. No child should be trapped in an educational system because of a family’s income or ZIP code. Every parent should be empowered to choose the environment where their child has the greatest opportunity to flourish.
Perhaps this moment also calls for some honest reflection. If tens of thousands of Arizona families are voluntarily leaving a system they were assigned to for one they freely chose, maybe the question isn’t why parents are leaving. Maybe the question is why so many feel they have to. Every family that leaves is telling us something. We should have the humility to listen.
We readily accept that competition drives innovation, improves quality, and expands choices in nearly every other aspect of our lives. Education should be no exception. Choice doesn’t weaken education—it strengthens it. When parents have the freedom to choose, every school has a reason to become the very best version of itself.
The debate surrounding Proposition 212 echoes a fundamental question that reaches far beyond a single ballot measure: Will Arizona continue to trust parents to make the best educational decisions for their children, or will it return to a system where government decides what is best for them?
If your family has benefited from educational choice, understand what is at stake. Learn about Proposition 212. Read it for yourself. Make your voice heard. And if you’re the parent of a student-athlete searching for an educational model that refuses to make your child choose between academic excellence and athletic ambition, I invite you to discover what we’re building at Elite Sports Academy.
More than 100,000 Arizona families have already rendered their verdict.
They didn’t choose educational freedom because a politician asked them to. They chose it because it gave their children opportunities they could not find elsewhere. Proposition 212 asks whether future Arizona families should have that same freedom. I believe they should. Because when government limits educational choice, it isn’t limiting schools.
It’s limiting children.
One hundred thousand Arizona families can’t be wrong.
Let’s not deny the next hundred thousand the same opportunity.
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