Public schools’ A+ week
Arizona public schools rack up another win with Prop. 305
Between teachers’ successful #RedForEd walk-outs and Prop. 305 going to the ballot, public schools got a win this week, writes Laurie Roberts.
It was a good week for public schools in Arizona. Crazy good.
First came a $400 million investment in public education, pulling our schools part of the way out of the $1 billion hole in which they have long resided, courtesy of Arizona’s Republicanled government.
Then on Thursday, despite the best efforts of GOP leaders, the Legislature was unable to block Proposition 305 — voters’ opportunity to tell our leaders just what we think of their universal voucher program.
A good week? More like a sensational week, one which may well serve as a turning point in Arizona politics.
The story of the #RedForEd movement took place on the streets, for everyone to see.
The story of the attempt to scuttle Prop. 305 took place where most things occur at the Capitol: outside the public’s view.
Threats and arm twisting, after all, are best done in the shadows.
Republican leaders were desperate to repeal the universal voucher program they enacted last year. This, after a grassroots group of citizens — to the surprise of all the political pros — launched a successful referendum drive to freeze the program and give voters the final say in November.
In November, when our leaders are up for re-election.
One would think if voters supported the further siphoning of the public treasury for private schools, our leaders would embrace a public vote. If public support is there, having Prop. 305 on the ballot should help them in their reelection efforts.
One would think if scuttling that vote wasn’t a bit of skulduggery, they would have introduced the repeal as a bill early in the legislative session and allowed public hearings on whether to do an end run around our constitutional right to decide this issue.
Instead, they waited until the waning hours of the session and started twisting arms behind closed doors.
Just before 1 p.m. Thursday, Save Our Schools Arizona put out the word that representatives of Gov. Doug Ducey and legislative leaders were working quietly to get the votes for a repeal.
They didn’t get far. Republican Sens. Kate Brophy McGee of Phoenix and Bob Worsley of Mesa refused to go along with a repeal, leaving Republicans unable to repeal their law.
“It’s honoring the people who got it to the ballot,” Brophy McGee told Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer.
Honoring the constitutional process that allows voters — you and me — to have the final say.
One would think if voters supported the further siphoning of the public treasury for private schools, our leaders would embrace a public vote.
So now our leaders face a lose-lose situation. One of two things will happen:
1. Prop. 305 passes but it’ll be locked, as is, in cement.
The Koch network — and thus Ducey — will do whatever it takes to save their expanded voucher program.
The Kochs see Arizona as “ground zero” in their move to reshape education in America.
And Ducey sees the Kochs as ground zero in his bid for higher office. As he explained his support of vouchers to Koch donors in January: “I didn’t run for governor to play small ball. I think this is an important idea.”
Look for them to spend boatloads of dark money to get Prop. 305 passed. But if voters do ratify the expansion, it’ll be capped for all time at 30,000 students, given the Voter Protection Act.
The cap on Empowerment Scholarship Accounts was added last year in order to get enough votes to pass the bill.
But it was always intended to be a temporary thing.
If voters ratify Prop. 305, it would take a threefourths vote of the Legislature to lift the cap. That’ll never happen. 2. Prop. 305 goes down
Frustrated voters stream to the polls to put a stake in the heart of this idea that an expanded voucher law really is a matter of school choice for all.The sort of voters who know that vouchers cover nowhere near the cost of private school tuition.
The sort of voters who are fed up after a decade of watching public schools — the ones that most Arizona children attend — suffer while our leaders cut taxes and expand tuition tax credit and voucher programs to boost private schools.
The sort of voters who often don’t bother to vote. But this year?
I’m betting the #RedForEd chant — “Remember in November” — is fairly clanging in our leaders’ ears today. Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepu blic.com.