We support school choice, but now is not the time to expand it.
This is no time for state lawmakers to siphon money from Arizona’s K-12 public schools by expanding vouchers for private schools. We strongly support school choice, and we are proud to say that Arizona has been a leader in this area. Parents have a variety of choices for their children’s educational needs. Arizona’s current limited voucher program is part of that mix.
But the vast majority of parents choose to send their children to traditional public schools, which suffered drastic cuts and are operating with less money than voters wanted them to have.
Lawmakers need to respect that choice by focusing how to make public schools whole.
This has to happen before expanding Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which provide public money for private education and reduce the money in the public system.
Our K-12 public schools are so in need of money that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is requesting $64 million from the Trump administration to address basic health and safety needs. These include:
$38.5 million to deal with elevated amounts of lead in school drinking water.
$17.5 million to replace worn-out heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.
$8.4 million to repair rubber flooring that emits high levels of mercury vapor.
Ducey’s school-funding request to Uncle Sam totals more than twice the $30 million the state itself is spending this year to fix public-school facilities.
Schools also face costs to replace aging bus fleets and make routine repairs. Our teacher salaries are lower than a snake’s belly, and, not surprisingly, the state faces a teacher shortage.
Proposition 123 was approved by voters last year to provide a needed infusion of cash. But it was not meant to be the answer to the larger funding challenges facing public schools.
It was designed to settle a lawsuit in which the court found lawmakers had not honored the will of voters, who mandated schools receive funding for inflation. Such funding was not provided during the recession.
With the promise of Prop. 123’s immediate increase in funding, schools agreed to settle the lawsuit and take less money than voters wanted them to have. The settlement provided stability in which to begin a discussion of increasing school funding in meaningful ways — a discussion that could take place outside the courthouse. That hasn’t happened. In his budget proposal this year, Ducey asks for a modest increase in education funding that is in keeping with his vow not to raise taxes. It may be all the state can afford given current revenue realities. But it does not satisfy the needs of Arizona’s schools.
And it certainly does not provide justification for further reducing the funding available to public schools.
Nevertheless, lawmakers are considering several measures that would siphon more money from public education by expanding school vouchers to cover all of the state’s 1.1 million students by 2020.
The program is currently capped at about 5,000 students. This year’s ESA budget is about $40 million, according to the Arizona Department of Education.
That’s more than the state provided this year to fix things like lead-laced water and mercury fumes in public schools.
Taking more money out of public schools now is irresponsible.
What’s more, a state auditor general’s report last year found that a lack of accountability in the ESA voucher program results in squandering taxpayer money.
Of $102,000 misspent in the ESA program in one six-month period alone, only 15 percent was recovered, the audit found.
Oversight should be enhanced for the current program. Fiscally responsible lawmakers will demand to see the problems corrected before any expansion occurs.
Arizona has robust school choice. The task for the governor and lawmakers now is to provide adequate funding for the No. 1 choice of Arizona parents: public schools.