Posted on 04/07/2017 10:03:52 AM PDT by re_tail20
Arizona could soon become the first state in the nation to institute a universal school-choice program. And because the state already has a successful, but more limited, program in place — a funding system that has been expanded several times over the last few years — there is a solid foundation on which to build the effort.
The bill to expand the program could land on Arizona governor Doug Ducey’s desk as early as this week. It has already passed the education committees in both chambers of the state legislature and, since there is just a month left in the session, a full vote on the bill is expected sometime in April. Because Ducey has approved developments to this school-choice program in past years, it is likely that he will support this latest expansion.
The Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based think tank, has been on the front lines of Arizona’s school-choice movement for the last decade. In 2006, the group introduced the concept of education savings accounts, and this idea was first enacted across the state in 2011 in a program for children with special needs. The Empowerment Scholarship Account program has used this savings-account model and expanded it every year since to include more students, including those in failing schools or adopted from foster care, as well as children of military members and children who live on Native American reservations.
The program now enrolls 3,300 students, and the new bill would expand access slowly over the course of the next four academic years by opening the program to students in a few grade levels each year. About half of the students currently enrolled are children with special needs.
Empowerment Scholarship Accounts function in a similar way to health savings accounts, which help individuals or families save for health-care needs and...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
It's sad, it really is. But as a retired teacher with a variety of experiences I find what happens to be amusing. So often, teachers think their high-quality students learn because their teachers are uniquely qualified to inspire those young 'uns. It isn't pretty when they encounter the lower tier of students. But in a Schadenfreude kind of way, it sure is amusing.
just offer exactly what they are paying per student right now.
I would take 10 students at that rate and teach them K-12 and finish in 10 years not 13
“These accounts differ from vouchers in that parents can use the money to finance several educational needs simultaneously. This distinction is important. In 2009, the Arizona supreme court ruled that vouchers violate the state’s constitutional provisions against using public money for private or religious purposes. But in 2014, the state supreme court upheld a lower-court ruling determining that ESAs are constitutional because they are fundamentally different from vouchers.”
Why clearly they are! One’s called a voucher and the other is called an ESA. As different as night and day!
IIRC Sun City was exempt from tax collection destined for public schools. How about letting parents opt out of the public system, keeping their money to send their kids to whatever school fits best.
Wow—I would love to opt out of paying school taxes since I have no kids in the system and never did due to homeschooling.
>
IIRC Sun City was exempt from tax collection destined for public schools. How about letting parents opt out of the public system, keeping their money to send their kids to whatever school fits best.
>
Why, we can’t do THAT, people may use their $$ for things the govt doesn’t *want* like, oh, I don’t know, a TRUE education for their children; or those w/o kids\older to keep their own $$, instead of giving it to the ‘less fortunate’ /s
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.