Arizona leaders continue to fail Arizona schools

This,” Senate President Steve Yarbrough proclaimed, “is a very important day in the history of Arizona.” He is, of course, right. Thursday was an important day — the day when Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature began the wholesale segregation and eventual annihilation of Arizona’s public-school system.

Oh, it won’t happen overnight. The destruction begins not with evisceration, but with a more surgical strike.

And so, after years of starving the schools, comes Senate Bill 1431, expanding the state’s voucher program to allow any child to attend private school with a public subsidy.

The bill was amended to cap the number and size of the vouchers, to avoid another alt-fuels fiasco. Does anybody believe that cap will remain?

Remember, the Empowerment Scholarship Account program (read: vouchers) was created in 2011 for disabled children. Until, suddenly, it also was for foster children and children of the military. Until, suddenly, it was also for certain kindergartners and children who live in school districts rated “D” or “F.” Until, suddenly, it also was for children who live on reservations. And now … for all children. Except, of course, that not all children will be able to take the money and run to the nearest private school. A voucher will be $4,500 to $5,300. The average private-school tuition in Arizona is $10,673, according to Private School Review, an online database.

Those kids whose parents can’t cover tuition and transportation and uniforms and fees will be left behind in a public system that already is vastly underfunded. Do you think our leaders’ commitment to public education is likely to improve once all the suburban kids have fled for private schools?

This bill is a win for the religious and private schools that will see their numbers soar. It’s a win for any parent who is able to send their kid to private school, as now they’ll score a public subsidy to help pay the tab.

It’s a massive win for Ducey, whose “dark money” supporters have long worked to privatize education.

They’re people who would have you believe it’s about giving parents choices, when it’s really about giving some parents choices. People who say it’s about improving public education, when really it’s about destroying public education. People who, no doubt, will be writing fat campaign checks next year — anonymously, of course — to support the re-election of Ducey and the Republicans who approved vouchers for “all.”

Never mind that we already have open enrollment, charter schools and a tuition tax-credit program that automatically grows by 20 percent a year.

Applause all around to the Legislature and to our self-proclaimed “education governor” — who in 2012 led the drive to defeat a sales tax for schools. Who in 2016 negotiated a deal to give schools 70 percent of funds they were owed. Who has proposed a four-tenths of a percent pay raise for teachers.

The governor who this week muscled moderate Republicans into selling out Arizona’s public schools.

Let the gutting begin.