Local Opinion: We need to protect accountable public education in Arizona

As a retired developmental-behavioral pediatrician and community college adjunct instructor, I have watched with dismay the steadily advancing attack by Arizona’s Republican legislators on accountable public education for Arizona’s children.

The excellent Sept. 24 article, “Voucher foes submit 141K signatures,” compels me to review what brings us to this point and to raise the question: Can Arizona’s public school system survive if the politicians intent on destroying public education remain in power?

Arizona’s public school system includes over 560 charter schools, providing a wide range of choices of educational systems while requiring standards and accountability. Over 20% of Arizona students attend Arizona charter schools. But since 1998, Republican legislators and governors in Arizona have been steadily increasing state financial support for parochial (religious) and private schools that have no state accountability or requirements for: safety, professional standards, basic curriculum, class size, student achievement, or serving any student independent of race, creed or need.

There are two ways that Arizona’s Republican legislators and governors have supported parochial and independent private schools at the expense of our public school system: STOs (Student Tuition Organizations) manage private and corporate tax credits which can only be used for private school tuition. Alternately, a family can use an ESA (Empowerment Scholarship Account) which provides state funds directly to families and can be used for a variety of education-related expenses in addition to tuition or home schooling — if the family opts out of public school services.

STO tax credit funds go directly to private tuition organizations, rather than government accounts, so those funds can be paid directly to parochial schools without violating constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. However, ESA funds come from collected taxes which cannot be paid directly to parochial (religious) schools. To circumvent that problem, ESA funds go directly to applying families as a debit card “voucher.” While technically “legal,” both systems provide a means of diverting potential or actual state tax income to support religious education in defiance of the clear intent of Arizona’s Constitution.

Since the first STO in 1998, the total STO tax credit for available individuals has increased to over $1,200 per year, and far more is available for corporations. Notably, only 90% of collected funds must be paid as tuition, leaving up to 10% as cash for management of the organization; STO management is a lucrative business. Meanwhile the tax credit for individual donations to public schools has remained at a total of $200 per year, with no corporate donation option.

In 2011, eligibility for ESA funding to attend a private/parochial school was just for students with disabilities, but since then eligibility has expanded to include children in foster care or being adopted or placed with a permanent guardian, children of members of the military, children attending low-rated public schools and children living on a reservation. Then, in 2017, the ESA law was changed to allow ESA vouchers for any child, but Save Our Schools AZ obtained signatures to refer it to the ballot where the expansion was rejected by 65%.

At it again, in June 2022 the Republican Legislature passed HB 2853, providing over $6,500 as an ESA voucher to be available for any Arizona K-12 student for tuition and/or other educational expenses if the family opts out of public education. But for students attending public schools, Arizona’s per-pupil spending is the much higher $8,800 — though still pitifully below the national average of about $13,500. No state has a per pupil annual spending less than $7,500.

“School choice” decreases public funding for the education of all K-12 students, including those who receive “vouchers,” and supports religious and private schools that have no accountability to the state and its taxpayers. It is time to elect an Arizona government that values universally accessible and accountable public education as the anchor of our democracy.