Huge Arizona school voucher plan in effect after foes fail
2 years, 2 months ago

Huge Arizona school voucher plan in effect after foes fail

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — All Arizona parents now can use state tax money to send their children to private or religious schools or pay homeschooling costs after an effort by public school advocates to block a massive expansion of the state’s private school voucher law failed to collect enough signatures to block it. He celebrated on Twitter, saying “Let’s Roll!” and “Parents Prevail.” Arizona now has the nation’s most expansive private school voucher law. “Parents are rightly in control of their children’s future!” Arizona already had the most expansive education options in the nation, with public and charter school, a tax credit system that helps pay private schooling costs and the voucher system, technically called Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. Opponents of the voucher system argue it siphons cash from an underfunded public school system and allows parents who already can afford and currently send their children to private schools to get state money for those costs.

Children Parents Students School Schools Arizona Republican State Democrat Public Legislature Private System Hobbs Public Schools Private Schools Voucher Ducey Foes Fail  system  arizona  state  effect  children  students  plan  school  schools  foes  fail  private  huge  voucher  parents  public

History of this topic

Despite Trump’s win, school vouchers were again rejected by majorities of voters
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Despite Trump’s win, school vouchers were again rejected by majorities of voters

Raw Story  

In 2018, Arizona voters overwhelmingly rejected school vouchers. Coming into this week’s election, Donald Trump and Republicans had hoped to reverse that sort of popular opposition to “school choice” with new voucher ballot measures in several states. And in Colorado, voters defeated an effort to add a “right to school choice” to the state constitution, language that might have allowed …

Commentary: Education gets short shrift from Trump and Harris on the presidential campaign trail
2 months ago

Commentary: Education gets short shrift from Trump and Harris on the presidential campaign trail

LA Times  

Once again, education hasn’t made the grade as a serious and important campaign issue. He wants to open parent choice, to the point of allowing widespread vouchers that include religious schools, even though it’s not the parents who pay for public education. Harris has had even less to say, mainly limiting herself to brief mentions of continuing some kind of …

Alabama lawmakers have approved a school choice program
9 months, 2 weeks ago

Alabama lawmakers have approved a school choice program

Associated Press  

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday signed legislation creating a program similar to school vouchers that would provide eligible families with as much as $7,000 to help pay for private school and $2,000 for homeschooling expenses. The state, he added, should “focus on the students and not so much institutions.” The legislation will allow eligible families to …

Gov. Shapiro seeks school-funding boost to help poorer districts, but Republicans remain wary
10 months, 2 weeks ago

Gov. Shapiro seeks school-funding boost to help poorer districts, but Republicans remain wary

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Josh Shapiro is taking the first step in what is shaping up to be a complicated, yearslong process to respond to a court decision that found that Pennsylvania’s system of public school funding violates the constitutional rights of students in the poorest districts. The 14% increase reflects recommendations produced last month by Shapiro appointees and Democratic …

Tennessee governor unveils push for statewide school voucher expansion, no income limitations
1 year ago

Tennessee governor unveils push for statewide school voucher expansion, no income limitations

Associated Press  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday backed a plan to expand beyond a three-county school voucher program for low-income kids by offering public money for private schooling statewide, regardless of family income. The current program awards eligible families around $8,100 in public tax dollars to help cover private school tuition and other preapproved expenses for up to …

Shapiro says unfinished business includes vouchers, more school funding and higher minimum wage
1 year, 1 month ago

Shapiro says unfinished business includes vouchers, more school funding and higher minimum wage

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Monday that his list of unfinished business for the state Legislature includes passing a private school voucher program, increasing the minimum wage and approving bills to curb gun violence. “I consider this to be unfinished business, along with making sure we raise the minimum wage, along with passing statute of limitations reform, …

Parents like private school vouchers so much that demand is exceeding budgets in some states
1 year, 1 month ago

Parents like private school vouchers so much that demand is exceeding budgets in some states

Associated Press  

In some states, higher-income families can now use taxpayer money to cover private school tuition -- and more people than projected are taking the offer, which might force scrambles to shore up state budgets. It’s especially an issue in states like Arizona and Iowa, where at least some families whose children were already in private school can now take advantage …

Column: Why ‘school choice’ was doomed when it became a cover for segregation
1 year, 4 months ago

Column: Why ‘school choice’ was doomed when it became a cover for segregation

LA Times  

Katie Hobbs is the bearer of bad news for Arizona families that rely on state aid to pay private school tuition. You should pay attention to Arizona, because its school finance battles could well be used to reopen a national debate about the Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. It was after that 1954 decision outlawing …

Proposals would bring dramatic change to Ohio’s voucher program
1 year, 6 months ago

Proposals would bring dramatic change to Ohio’s voucher program

Associated Press  

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio parents could soon see more taxpayer money in their pockets to help send their schoolchildren to private and religious schools, or fund homeschooling, under changes to a voucher program that Republican state lawmakers and the governor must hammer out by month’s end. Dubbed “backpack bills” because the funding follows students wherever they go, both legislative proposals …

Florida becomes 4th red state to expand school-choice options this year
1 year, 9 months ago

Florida becomes 4th red state to expand school-choice options this year

CNN  

Washington CNN — Riding the so-called “parental rights” movement, more Republican-led states are changing the way they fund K-12 education, making it easier for families to use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private schools. All families in Iowa, Utah, Arkansas and Florida – regardless of their income – will soon be eligible for thousands of state dollars each …

Iowa lawmakers OK public money for private school students
1 year, 11 months ago

Iowa lawmakers OK public money for private school students

Associated Press  

DES MOINES, Iowa — Any Iowa student who wants to attend a private school could use public money to pay for tuition or other expenses under a plan passed Tuesday by the Legislature and quickly signed into law by Gov. During debate Monday night, Rep. Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, said Democrats were overstating what the private school funding …

New Arizona governor wants to undo school voucher expansion
1 year, 11 months ago

New Arizona governor wants to undo school voucher expansion

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs wants to undo a massive expansion of a school voucher program championed last year by her GOP predecessor and other Republicans that lets students apply to use public money for private-school tuition and other education costs. In releasing its budget proposals Friday, the governor’s office said the expansion is siphoning money from underfunded …

Private school vouchers open faith options for kids of color
2 years, 1 month ago

Private school vouchers open faith options for kids of color

Associated Press  

MILWAUKEE — On break in the hallway between St. Marcus Lutheran Church and its attached school, eighth grader Annii Kinepoway had no hesitation in explaining what she’s learned to love best here — the good Lord and good grades. “I was looking for a school that would help me.” St. Anthony is one of the country’s largest Catholic schools – …

Foes of Arizona school vouchers file to block huge expansion
2 years, 3 months ago

Foes of Arizona school vouchers file to block huge expansion

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — Public school advocates who oppose a massive expansion of Arizona’s private school voucher system enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. “But we have enough that we feel confident that with the validity of our signatures we can turn in and get through the processing and get it on the ballot.” Voucher opponents …

Arizona governor touts school voucher plan, slams opponents
2 years, 4 months ago

Arizona governor touts school voucher plan, slams opponents

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and backers of universal school vouchers took a victory lap Tuesday over legislation the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted in June giving the state the nation’s most expansive voucher system, and he also used the time to attack backers of public schools who are trying to block the measure at the ballot. “There’s no one-size …

Arizona OKs biggest US school voucher plan, faces challenge
2 years, 5 months ago

Arizona OKs biggest US school voucher plan, faces challenge

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — Republican Gov. The expansion Ducey signed will let every parent in Arizona take public money now sent to the K-12 public school system and use it to pay for their children’s private school tuition or other education costs. “Our network of volunteers across the state are pumped and ready.” Lewis and other public school advocates say vouchers take …

School's out forever: Arizona moves "to kill public education" with new universal voucher law
2 years, 5 months ago

School's out forever: Arizona moves "to kill public education" with new universal voucher law

Salon  

Last Friday, while the country reeled from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, Arizona made history of a different sort. In practice, the law will now give parents who opt out of public schools a debit card for roughly $7,000 per child that can be used to pay for private school tuition, but also for much more: for religious …

Report: Albuquerque should shrink public schools, cut jobs
2 years, 7 months ago

Report: Albuquerque should shrink public schools, cut jobs

Associated Press  

SANTA FE, N.M. — Albuquerque’s K-12 schools should cut staff and think about downsizing its footprint because of dwindling enrollment and spend more for the education of low-income students who fell further behind their peers during this school year, according to a report from the New Mexico Legislature made public Wednesday. The report from the powerful Legislative Finance Committee recommended …

Voter-approved Arizona education tax dead after court ruling
2 years, 9 months ago

Voter-approved Arizona education tax dead after court ruling

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — A judge on Friday declared that a tax on high-earning Arizona residents to fund education spending that voters approved in 2020 can’t be enforced because of a state Supreme Court ruling and ordered its collection permanently blocked. The ruling from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah was widely expected after the Supreme Court ruled in August that …

Arizona governor blocks cash from schools mandating masks
3 years, 4 months ago

Arizona governor blocks cash from schools mandating masks

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. “These grants acknowledge efforts by schools and educators that are following state laws and keeping their classroom doors open for Arizona’s students.” School districts with current mask mandates will have 10 days to rescind them or lose out on the money, Ducey spokesman C.J. Ducey also created a $10 million grant program that largely mirrors the …

New Mexico home schoolers drive drop in enrollment, funding
3 years, 5 months ago

New Mexico home schoolers drive drop in enrollment, funding

Associated Press  

SANTA FE, N.M. — Home schooling nearly doubled in New Mexico last year as thousands of parents opted out of virtual learning programs offered in public schools. The home-schooling data validates a Census survey that found home schooling doubled in New Mexico and across the U.S. Because federal and state education funding is pegged to student enrollment, a retreat from …

California governor proposes public school ‘transformation’
3 years, 7 months ago

California governor proposes public school ‘transformation’

Associated Press  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a “total transformation” of public schools in America’s largest state Wednesday by offering pre-kindergarten to all 4-year-olds, opening up college savings accounts for low-income students and offering universal after-school care in disadvantaged communities. “We are looking to transform — not go back to where we were — but transform our education system.” …

Education tax measure certified for November Arizona ballot
4 years, 4 months ago

Education tax measure certified for November Arizona ballot

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — Arizona’s Secretary of State has certified that a voter initiative that would boost taxes on high-earning Arizonans to increase school funding will be on the November ballot. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs announced Friday that a sample of petition sheets sent to county recorders came back with enough verified signatures for the Invest in Education Act to qualify …

Discover Related