Giving families the freedom to choose is arguably at the very core of our democracy. And recently, in Arizona, democracy worked exactly as intended.
Given a choice between providing an Empowerment Scholarship Account to any family in the state who needs a better educational alternative or signing a petition to block that right, voters chose ESAs and cemented Arizona’s position as a national leader in expanding educational choice. They refused to sign a petition to block this new and innovative educational legislation, and the challenge to the state’s new school choice law failed.
EDUCATION IN WEST VIRGINIA FINDS NEW HOPE
If you were closely following this battle or the current state of education across our country, it wouldn’t surprise you to see that the efforts to block this legislation failed. The fact is that families are hungry for more choices and customization over their children’s education — not just in Arizona but nationally.
Public sentiment backs up this call: It is time for education in America to move forward. Not only did the pandemic illuminate existing inequities in our education system, but it also eroded parent trust in our educational institutions, worsened the national teacher shortage, and caused significant damage to student learning, especially for our most vulnerable children. It is no wonder that families are ready for a change and are tired of being limited by the status quo.
Although they share a border, Arizona and California could not be handling the current education crisis differently. California remains intent on preserving the traditional, one-size-fits-all education system, and, as a result, the state is losing students and staff. The Los Angeles Unified School District reported a loss of tens of thousands of students during the pandemic. Leading up to this school year, it faced 900 classrooms without teachers while trying to fill 200 bus driver positions. By the first day of school, 50,000 previously enrolled Los Angeles students simply did not show up.
California’s story shows that families are more than willing to vote with their feet, relocating to schools or communities that are more responsive to parents’ needs. But in far too many cases, only those parents who can afford it are able to pursue different options for their children. When that happens, the already too-wide gulf between the haves and have-nots in our country grows.
Arizona’s new law levels the playing field. As Gov. Doug Ducey explained, “Many of our poor kids and children of color are trapped in a failing school. It’s time to set these families free. … Let’s think big and find more ways to get kids into the school of their parents’ choice.” By fully embracing ESAs, all families in the state now have the opportunity to decide how to spend their education resources. Any family opting for an ESA will receive about $7,000 per year to spend on approved education expenses, including everything from private school tuition to online curricula, transportation expenses, education therapies, tutoring, and even public school classes and services.
But Arizona isn’t narrowly investing in choice. It is investing in education across the board while simultaneously handing more decision-making power to families — to those who know their learners best. The state has invested $11.8 billion in K-12 education since 2015, and this year’s budget included the most significant additional increase in K-12 education funding in the last eight years.
What’s happening in Arizona stands to benefit education in all its forms — traditional public schools, private schools, public charter schools, and homeschooling. By putting more power, and resources, in the hands of families, they are creating the conditions for innovation to take hold across the entire system. When empowering families goes hand-in-hand with increasing investments in education overall, that creates not only the incentives but also the conditions for education to evolve. With the constructive changes Arizona has made, it’s no surprise the state has seen remarkable academic growth.
Arizona’s new law places it firmly in the lead of other states regarding innovating on behalf of families and children. And you know how they did it? The lawmakers leading that state put politics aside and stopped thinking about education through the lens of partisan debate. They didn’t view prioritizing public education and increasing choice as mutually exclusive options on opposing ends of a political spectrum. They did something that is becoming far too rare — they listened to the voters. They listened to families.
More states need to follow Arizona’s lead. Yes, ESAs are an innovation worth considering, and Arizona’s law will almost certainly continue yielding benefits that are hard to ignore.
But more importantly, states need to engage families, listen to them, and trust them. There is an opportunity for more elected officials to tap into the core of our democracy. If we give families the power to choose what they need for their child’s education, then we just may be able to pull our education system out of the past and into a brighter future.
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Craig Hulse is the executive director of Yes, Every Kid.
