Earlier this month, the Arizona Supreme Court reaffirmed a lower court decision regarding signatures to place an anti-ESA ballot measure on the November ballot.
The result is that only about 240,000 signatures were deemed valid, way short of the minimum required. This generated among school-choice advocates a high level of jubilation.
Important as this victory was for supporters of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, it should be noted that it was not a victory of substance, but one of procedure. In other words, it did not show a voter rejection of the content of the initiative, but only that the teachers union and their supporters failed to obtain the required valid signatures. Republicans should not ignore the fact that there are at least 240,000 voters who support addressing issues with the ESA program.
The reason why this is important is that teachers’ unions, Democrats, and other anti-school-choice individuals and groups have now exhausted every avenue to kill ESA’s available to them, except one.
The only way left to repeal school choice in Arizona is to flip the legislature from a Republican to a Democrat majority.
Keeping the Republican majority in both the House and the Senate has been a daunting task for several cycles now, but this year there are two additional hurdles.
One is that the anti-school-choice will stop at nothing in their quest for a Democrat-dominated legislature.
The second hurdle is the anti-Republican sentiment generated by President Trump’s actions in connection with the economy and the war in Iran. This sentiment permeates down to the state and local levels.
One reason why Hobbs, Democrats, and others were successful in convincing 240,000 voters that we need ESA reforms is that they, with a lot of assistance from the main stream media, have represented their actions as a desire to improve the ESA program, not to repeal it totally.
One way to fact-check those claims is to look carefully to legislative actions they have taken since ESA’s were first introduced back in 2011.
- 2011: Arizona enacts the nation’s first ESA program, initially serving students with disabilities that could not, or would not, be addressed by the school district system. The bill number was SB1553. The bill passed without a single yes vote from Democrats.
- 2012: Eligibility expands to additional groups, including foster children, military families, and students in low-performing districts. It was done via bill number HB2626. Again, all Democrats that voted, voted NO.
- 2017: Legislature passes SB1431 to open ESAs to nearly all students. Democrat behavior still unchanged. They all voted NO.
- 2022: HB2853 expands ESAs to broad eligibility, making almost every student eligible.
- 2026: A last-minute effort at the end of the legislative session was made to reach a compromise regarding ESA regulations. It entailed attaching a Strike Everything amendment to House bill HB2142. As Democrats have done all along, they all voted NO. But this time one Republican senator joined the Democrats in their NO vote, which killed the deal. There was no way to guarantee that the Democrats would adhere to their part of the bargain, but if they did not, the Republicans would have had a strong argument in their favor. As it is, Republicans are left with the difficult task of convincing voters that they are serious about addressing these issues.
In 2011, 2012, and 2017 Katie Hobbs was a member of the state legislature. All three times, when a vote on ESA’s came up, she, like all Democrats, voted NO. This is a clear indication that their goal is not to reform what is wrong with ESAs, but to eliminate them totally.
The main takeaway from the foregoing is that Republican state legislators should include in their platforms a plank that describes what they will do to enhance the ESA program in three areas:
- Accountability: Voters are increasingly demanding measures that ensure public funds are spent appropriately and effectively.
- Transparency: There is a strong push for clearer reporting on how ESA funds are used, aiming to prevent misuse.
- Funding: The rapid growth in ESA enrollment seems to be outpacing the level of funding. Legislators should assure voters that the funds will be there to enable a proper level of both accountability and transparency.
A related article may be read HERE
Proper overseeing of government programs is always a good idea, but this year there is an additional incentive to pay more attention to this issue in connection to ESAs. It could mean the difference between keeping and losing them.
Republicans cannot afford to allow both the governor and the legislature to be in Democrat hands. They cannot depend on all credible polls being wrong about the prospects of having a Republican governor when the legislature convenes in 2017. They must do everything possible to maintain their majority status in the state legislature.
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