How lawmakers can do better on voucher expansion
If Arizona Republicans believe private school vouchers will help fix our education problems, they shouldn’t pass an expansion on a party-line vote
There’s a new fight over education, and unless something changes, all our schoolchildren will hear is adults bickering without solving problems.
SB 1452. Vouchers. ESAs. Segregation. Charter schools. Private schools. Title I. Blah. Blah. Blah.
The latest turn in Arizona’s education disaster is a new attempt by Senate Republicans to dramatically expand the state’s private school voucher program.
It’s not going to work unless Republicans involve the people they say they’re trying to help. If conservative lawmakers are serious about helping poor kids in bad schools, then those kids’ biggest advocates should be on board. If this thing continues to advance on a party-line vote, it’s going to be impossible for anyone to trust it.
With the bill awaiting action in the state House of Representatives, it’s on House Speaker Rusty Bowers and House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding to create the framework of a bipartisan agreement.
The idea is to open up voucher eligibility to more students so they can attend private schools using public funds. Right now, it’s hard to qualify for
vouchers. The program is available mostly to kids from failing schools, foster kids and special-needs kids.
But the new plan, Senate Bill 1452, which is likely to become law soon, will make the voucher program available to at least 2 of every 3 students in the state, about 700,000 kids, by some estimates.
So, the tax money that comes out of your paycheck (probably before you ever see a penny of it hit your own account first) would pay for kids to go to a fancy school rather than use those funds to fix up their neighborhood school.
There are pros and cons to that, but inertia is unacceptable. Say what you will about the current solution, but the status quo isn’t going to cut it.
Republicans deserve praise for floating a plan.
Right now, public school education is a hot mess.
An Arizona Republic investigation showed that fewer than 1 in 5 graduates of the Class of 2024 would have a bachelor’s degree by 2028. High schools are turning out students who aren’t prepared for college. And we have a teacher shortage because educators in the state get paid like short-order cooks.
(That’s not a joke, by the way. We pay some teachers less than $40,000 a year. Who would ever want to step into a job so important ... so difficult ... so intense with such an insulting compensation plan?)
Why stop there?
Arizona ranked last nationally in perpupil funding and last in the percentage of state wealth allocated to primary schooling, according to the Education Law Center, before voters passed Proposition 208 in November.
And, according to Greater Phoenix Leadership, a group of the state’s leading CEOs, minority students are getting the strongest dose of a steady drip of problems they didn’t cause. Call it “systemic racism” or whatever that latest buzzword is, but GPL data show that more than half of minority students can’t read by the time they finish third grade.
The state, when it comes to reading proficiency, is failing 56% of Latino kids, 60% of Black kids and 72% of Native American kids.
Clearly, something needs to be done. The new voucher plan represents a potential solution.
But it’s a longshot.
A Republican, Paul Boyer, introduced the bill, and it advanced on a 16-14 vote. All the Senate Republicans supported it. All the Senate Democrats opposed.
The bill now sits in the House, where Republicans have a 31-29 majority. It has a strong chance of passing. But right now, Democrats are poking so many holes in the legislation that if it were a pail it wouldn’t hold water.
They’re saying it’s too easy for rich families to exploit the system. They’re saying poor kids will be victims of a funding formula that will leave them trapped in even worse schools.
And special-interest group opponents are promising ballot measures and other legal fights that would prevent the voucher expansion from working before it even has a chance.
These are the people who stand in for the underprivileged kids who can’t stand up for themselves, so their opinions have merit.
If Arizona Republican lawmakers are serious about this plan for its ability to help students who need it the most, they need to get some Democrats to work with them and some advocacy groups to publicly support the plan that emerges. (And they should be open to the possibility that this is simply a bad idea.)
Right now, there’s a huge trust gap, but getting a group of reasonable Democrats to come over and help shape the plan is key.
Democrats, for their part, can’t obstruct the plan just because they didn’t think of it. Leadership has to be willing to work for a solution that benefits the kids.
This can’t be a continuation of the political extremism of the past.
Reasonable people need to listen to and work with one another.
Looks like it’s time for Bowers and Bolding to get to it.
Otherwise, we’re failing the kids, and all they’ll hear is adults bickering without solving problems.
Right now, there’s a huge trust gap, but getting a group of reasonable Democrats to come over and help shape the plan is key.