In his January 24 letter in the Star James Stewart promotes Arizona's education vouchers, claiming that "school choice leads to a better educated state." He could not be more wrong. There is no evidence to back up his claim, as schools receiving voucher money are not required to submit their curricula to the State of Arizona for evaluation and, unlike public schools, these private schools are not required to measure their students' academic performance.
Research has confirmed that a large percentage of these private schools perform worse than public schools and that their graduates are often ill-equipped to do well in life, because their education stressed Christian nationalism and right-wing politics over academics. In addition, some parents choose private "segregation academies" to ensure that their white children will never have to attend school with students of color or "non-Christians." These children are being manipulated by parents and politicians and would be better off attending public schools. Arizona has no business providing such schools with taxpayer funds.
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Jon Dorschner
Midtown
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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