Posted on 02/12/2017 11:28:37 AM PST by 11th_VA
PHOENIX — A Senate panel agreed Thursday to open the door to allowing all 1.1 million students in Arizona schools to use state dollars to attend private or parochial schools, so that parents can choose.
The 4-3 vote by the Senate Education Committee followed hours of testimony from people who already get what lawmakers call “empowerment scholarship accounts,” detailing how they’ve helped their children. Eligible groups include children with special needs, those living on tribal reservations and those who attend schools rated D or F, among others.
Sen. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, sponsor of SB 1431, said vouchers save taxpayer money. She said schools get an average of $9,529 a year for each student while a typical voucher is in the $5,200 range.
But Chuck Essigs of the Arizona Association of School Business Officials said that’s misleading. He said the $9,529 figure includes federal aid to schools as well as locally raised dollars for bonds and overrides. Essigs said the actual amount paid in state aid to schools is an average of $1,100 less per student than a voucher for an elementary school child; for high schools the difference is $1,200 per child, he said.
Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, said there is no danger of a wholesale shifting of funds from public schools if SB 1431 is approved and all students are eligible for vouchers. He cited existing law that limits vouchers to no more than one-half of a percent of all students, a figure that computes to about 5,500 students.
What Smith did not say, though, is that the cap will end in 2019, removing all limits.
Sen. David Bradley, D-Tucson, argued that if state dollars are going to private schools, the schools should have to comply with the same regulations that apply to all public schools. That includes not only rules testing and accounting but also the mandate to accept all students, including those with special needs, who private and parochial schools can turn away.
Committee members rejected his amendment. The legislation heads to a vote of the full Senate.
Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, broke ranks with her Republican colleagues in opposing SB 1431. She said she supports school choice but that a level playing field is needed, including “the same level of accountability and transparency.”
She said she cannot support having tax dollars going to private and parochial schools until the state adequately funds the public schools it is required to maintain.
“We need to resolve the teacher shortage,” Brophy McGee said. “We need to get us somewhere in the middle of the pack (nationally) of school per-pupil funding.”
Sen. Catherine Miranda, D-Phoenix, said the reason that some children opt for alternatives is “we’re not funding public schools.”
Lesko’s bill is the culmination of a multiyear effort to further expand the concept of “school choice.”
Arizona already has options. Students need not attend their neighborhood school but can go to any other public school in the state that has space.
The state also has an extensive system of charter schools. These are technically public schools which can be run by nonprofit or for-profit corporations. While they are exempt from some state regulations, they cannot turn away students they do not want. They also cannot charge tuition higher than the state aid they receive.
In 2011, lawmakers approved a program to allow students who cannot get their special needs met at public schools to receive a voucher to pay tuition and fees at private schools.
Since that time the law has been expanded to include foster care children, children in military families, students residing on reservations and those in D- and F-rated schools or school districts.
Proponents never made a secret of their goal of universal vouchers. Until now, however, Lesko has been unable to line up the vote for an all-comers plan.
Does that include Illegal Children?
Be careful what you wish for. The private schools were much more private before they became infested with federal money. With money comes regulation.
Example: What do you think is going to happen when they try to expel demonic beasts who are there with a voucher? When a 15 year old with a 40 IQ who still wets his diapers applies?
IIRC, 30% of the schools in Arizona are charter schools and 17% of all students go to a charter school. Additionally, there are thousands of students on the waiting list to get into those charter schools. Arizona is doing something right.
Is there anything that says a private school must accept ANY student who applies?
This could be a disaster that destroys the remaining decent schools. Conservatives need to think this stuff through harder. Can inner city students use these vouchers to enroll in suburban schools? If that happens to any significant degree, the vast majority of GOP voters will turn against vouchers.
There are a lot of questions that are unanswered about this agenda. Can public or private schools opt out of accepting vouchers? Can voucher students be disciplined and expelled if they misbehave or will they be some kind of protected class? Will schools that receive vouchers have to accept extra government interference in the curriculum, enrollment and discipline? All of the questions must be answered for what will happen under a liberal Democratic administration and in liberal dominated blue states as well as under GOP governments.
Bad move.
I saw a little of what happens. A parochial high school in the city accepted and depended on voucher students for survival. They became part of federally mandated standards in some special programs in math and reading. Those programs were being run by the public school system.
Freedom from leftist indoctrination is coming! Eat that, socialist pigs!!!
Charter schools are not exempt from political indoctrination. Don't kid yourself.
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