Conservative activist groups backed by the Koch brothers will begin a major push in Arizona Wednesday to educate residents about the state’s new school voucher law, which is on hold pending the outcome of a voter ballot next year.
The effort, funded by groups allied with Charles and David Koch, will spend six figures in an attempt to reach families throughout the state, with a particular emphasis on Hispanics.
Teachers unions have mounted a major effort against the voucher law, which was signed in April by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. The law would allow all of the state’s 1.1 million public school students to obtain vouchers for about 90 percent of the cost of their previous education in a public or charter school. A union-led effort delivered the necessary signatures earlier this year to require a voter referendum on the issue in 2018.
The Libre Institute, a conservative Hispanic group, and the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, a nonprofit which is primarily funded by the Koch brothers, are launching an educational initiative to impress upon families the advantages of the voucher program.
The effort will highlight the fact that the state already has an extensive charter school system, and argue that families need even more freedom. An estimated 20 percent of Arizona families send their children to charter schools.
“Through the launch of our new grassroots initiative we are educating families on the educational options available to them, and on the role that educational freedom plays in empowering families with the ability to select the best options for their children,” said Carlos Alfaro, the Libre Institute’s Arizona coalitions director.
The groups declined to say how much was being spent on the effort but said the figure would exceed six figures. It will include radio and web ads, mailing and door-to-door contacts. The ads heavily feature Hispanic families and will argue that “education choice is improving education in Arizona.”
The state had a limited voucher program that was expanded to all students under Ducey’s legislation. The bill would have given those families that used the program an estimated $4,500 toward a private education, but students with special needs could get more.
Teacher unions have long hated such programs since they tend to move students from public schools, which are heavily unionized, to schools that aren’t unionized. They argue that the programs drain funds from public schools, making education worse for the students that remain.
The conservative activists argue that they are agnostic toward what schools students ultimately go to but believe that parents are eager for options and that they are often unaware of what options they have.
“We have parents with kids going to a charter school and the families not realizing that it was a charter school. They thought it was public,” Alfaro said. Such stories indicate that there is potentially broad support for vouchers in the state, he argued.
