Local opinion: Arizona voters deserved a say on ESA voucher guardrails

For a few weeks last spring, I hauled my Proposition 212 petition everywhere. Whether at a pool party or a grocery run, I would ask friends and family to support placing guardrails on Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. I dutifully recited the facts, like how ESAs provide students around $8,000 in taxpayer funds to spend on private school tuition or other nonpublic school expenses. I shared that ESA expenditures of up to $2,000 are often automatically approved, with little to no oversight. I explained how ESAs cost Arizonans nearly $1 billion per year, and that public schools are facing cuts and closures as a result. I gathered signatures and hoped that this citizen’s initiative would give voters at least a small voice in regulating our state’s ESA program.

So when I recently heard that Prop 212 had failed to make it onto Arizona’s November ballot, it was a huge disappointment. However, before I could even fully process this news, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was on a plane to Arizona to promote yet another educational funding program. Under the Education Freedom Tax Credit, she said Americans could receive a tax credit for donating up to $1,700 to Scholarship Granting Organizations. These SGOs could provide funds for public or private school students to pay for school tuition, tutoring, school supplies, or services for students with special needs. After seeing how ESAs wreaked havoc on schools and our state budget, Gov. Katie Hobbs was hesitant to sign Arizona up for the program. That’s when McMahon swooped in for the hard sell.

For a state where outside forces constantly try to weaken our public schools, McMahon’s visit was just another drop in the bucket. With so many lobbyists, politicians, and wealthy donors meddling in Arizona’s schools, I can’t help but paraphrase Regina George from the movie “Mean Girls”: Why are they so obsessed with us?!

It’s probably because for years Arizona politicians have been susceptible — even welcoming — to any group that undermines traditional public schools. As McMahon outlined in her Daily Star op-ed, Arizona was an early adopter of charter schools back in 1994. Then, we adopted educational vouchers in 2006, only to have them ruled unconstitutional in 2009 because it’s illegal to give public dollars to private schools. Did this stop lobbyists’ efforts to privatize education? No way. They found a loophole by giving money directly to parents, thus creating our first ESA vouchers in 2011. While these initial vouchers supported students with special needs, in 2018 the Arizona Legislature tried to expand voucher eligibility to all students. Even though 65% of voters soundly rejected this measure, the Legislature ignored the will of the people and passed universal vouchers in 2022 anyway.

Which brings us to today. With Prop 212, Arizonans had hoped for another chance to regulate our ESA program. In fact, a recent study shows that at least 67% of voters approve of ESA guardrails like those in Prop 212. This must have scared voucher supporters, because they sponsored a similar but watered-down proposition, creating confusion so that voters didn’t know which petition they had signed. As a result, some signed petitions twice, leading to signature disqualifications that eventually tanked Prop 212. Unsurprisingly, outsiders were backing the opposition bill. The Texas-based American Federation for Children even said they were willing to spend more than $6 million to challenge Prop 212.

Over and over, politicians and special-interest groups claim that our children are trapped in failing public schools. Then, instead of funding improvements to those schools, they propose using taxpayer money to subsidize private school tuition. Recent figures indicate that while 60% of Arizona ESAs go toward private schools, they no longer primarily serve students with special needs or those from low-income homes. Instead, most ESAs go to students from whiter, more affluent backgrounds.

That’s just one of many reasons the majority of Arizonans reject universal vouchers. It’s also why voucher advocates fought so hard to sabotage Prop 212. They may claim that parental choice is paramount in education, but if Arizonans were truly given the opportunity to weigh in on vouchers, we would vote to keep those funds right where they belong: in our public schools.