Gene V. Glass, one of our nation’s most eminent education researchers, writes here about the Big Lie embedded in Arizona’s voucher program.
The program began as vouchers for students with special needs (although we now know that students with disabilities abandon their rights when they leave the public system).
Glass writes:
“Originally intended only for special needs students, it was broadened to include children of military serving in Iraq & Afghanistan, and then children living on Indian reservations. The cynical intent is obvious.
“The latest incarnation of the program will expand the program by 5,000 students per year until a cap of 30,000 is reached.
“Even Republicans were reluctant to support the expansion, probably because of persistent non-support of vouchers among the voting public. The latest PDK Gallup poll continues to show more than 60% of parents opposed.
“Big lobby pressure to expand the program came from the local Goldwater Institute. When a compromise on the 5,000 per year expansion was reached, the reluctant Republicans fell in line.”
And then the scammers at the Goldwater Institute scammed their dupes in the Legislature. They immediately boasted that the cap would soon be abolished altogether, and everyone could get a voucher.
The Legislature proved itself to be lap dogs of the Goldwater Institute and Betsy DeVos. They betrayed public schools and their constituents by extending the privatization of a democratic institution.
Arizona is in a Race to the Bottom.
I am way too late in starting this new feature of the blog. It is called the Wall of Shame. The Arizona Legislature and Governor Ducey will be the first to receive this Badge of Shame.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You can definitely add New Mexico Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera and Governor Susana Martinez to your Wall of Shame. What those two have done to the children of New Mexico is an educational disaster that will take years to recover from and will affect the lives of our children and grandchildren well into their adult lives.
LikeLike
This seems to happen in all ed reform states. It starts under the auspices of “helping low income students”. They then enlarge it every session to include larger and larger groups.
Ohio lawmakers are currently working full-time on expanding charter school funding (again) and expanding vouchers (again). Meanwhile, they’re planning more budget cuts for the unfashionable schools 90% of kids attend.
It’s a shame that public school kids don’t have a single person in Columbus looking out for them. They do absolutely no work on behalf of 90% of kids.
Whole legislative sessions are consumed with the “choice” political agenda. You cannot PAY these people to focus on public schools- I know because we are paying them and they have absolutely no interest in what happens to our schools.
This is out of balance. All of government should not be exclusively focused on charter and private schools. It’s a dereliction of duty and they should all be called on it.
LikeLike
Do people who support vouchers on behalf of low income kids feel bamboozled when ed reformers immediately expand vouchers to better-off kids?
Because they were bamboozled. They were duped. This was never about “low income kids”. It was about ideological opposition to “government schools”.
The saddest part is public schools will be utterly eradicated before the general public figures out they were lied to.
LikeLike
I wish ed reform lobbyists would stop defining public schools as “unions”. I know very few of them have children in public schools (or attended public schools themselves) but public school parents and kids aren’t as obsessively anti-union as ed reform.
I don’t know a single parent in this town who defines the local public school as “union”
This is THEIR ideological obsession and crusade. Don’t put it on public school parents and kids. Take your anti-labor battle somewhere else. Don’t make my kid collateral damage. I’ve been a public school parent for 25 years and Ohio teachers have been union members that whole time. This anti-labor campaign they’re conducting doesn’t belong in our schools- in 25 years I think I have heard a parent mention teachers unions maybe 3 times. Take the anti-labor campaign to DC or some lobbying lunch at Mar a Lago. Leave me and my 8th grader out of it.
LikeLike
The two party system is totally BROKEN and cannot be repaired until both parties CLEAN HOUSE. There are so many bugs and scum around … find a good disinfectant.
So, keep voting for a DEMs and the REPs and nothing will change.
Even those who RESIST are dissed by those who kiss rear-ends, after all, their perks will be gone.
The USA is a very SICK country and getting worse with each second. Will we survive the sickeness and GERM? Answer: NOT if we continue down this path of destruction and mayhem.
LikeLike
Also I know public schools are horribly unfashionable and all politicians have decided they have no value but maybe some state-funded university could see their way clear to occasionally checking in with the schools 90% of kids attend?
It’s bad enough that charter and voucher mania has consumed DC and states, it also consumes university research.
Has some decision been made that the public is unaware of? We’re just pitching public schools in the trash and everyone forgot to tell the parents and kids in those schools?
LikeLike
First, they asked for one inch; then they wanted a foot, and now they want a mile. What will the want next?
LikeLike
I live in Arizona and they have earned a HUGE BAG of SHAME for what they are doing to our educational system. Kas WInters
LikeLike
Diane,
It would be great if you made a poster for the NPE conference with the names of both the halls.
LikeLike
This whole “Special Ed. kids, low-income kids” is a cover. I sat through six hours of testimony on the voucher bill they are trying to pass in Texas, and not one poor minority family spoke in favor of the vouchers. The only Special needs parents were those whose children had high-functioning Aspberger’s.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on patthaleblog and commented:
“The Arizona Legislature and Governor Ducey will be the first to receive this Badge of Shame.”
LikeLike
The AZ Republic did research that showed that most families that use the “empowerment scholarships”/vouchers are from districts labeled as A or B. It’s welfare for the wealthy
For the record, Arizonans overwhelmingly opposed this legislation. Many people spoke against and it was not supported by public school advocate organizations. AZ has had an R majority legislature for 24 yrs. We have the lowest per pupil funding in the nation, but Rs keeping sucking money out of public schools.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/03/30/arizona-taxpayer-funded-vouchers-benefiting-students-more-affluent-areas/99707518/
LikeLike