Voucher advocates claim they want to “save poor kids from failing schools.”
Well, it turns out that in Arizona, most of the students who use vouchers come from highly-rated schools. 70% of the students who use vouchers come from A or B schools.
Very few poor students seek vouchers.
Arizona Republic reporter Laurie Roberts writes:
“Anyone who thinks that Gov. Doug Ducey’s expanded voucher program is aimed at helping poor kids escape failing public schools, raise your hand.
“Anyone?
“If you’re buying the Prop. 305 argument that creating a universal voucher program is about helping poor and middle-income kids escape bad schools, make sure you read Republic reporter Rob O’Dell’s latest analysis of who is using state money to pay for private school.
“And as importantly, who is not.
“Here’s a hint: it isn’t the poor kids and the parents snagging a public subsidy to send their children to private schools are escaping failing schools.
“What the numbers show
“O’Dell’s latest analysis shows that nearly 70 percent of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (read: vouchers) are being used by students leaving wealthier A- or B-rated school districts.
“Only 7 percent of ESA money is being used by students leaving districts rated D or F.
“Yet Ducey and the Republican-run Legislature have repeatedly expanded the voucher program, which began in 2011 to allow children with disabilities to attend the school best suited to address their special needs. Since then, it has been broadened to include a variety of categories of children, including those who attend failing schools.
“In 2017, our leaders expanded the ESA program yet again, decreeing that any child should be able to snag public funds to put toward private school but capping the program (for now) at 30,000 students by 2022.
“An earlier Republic analysis showed that 75 percent of ESA money was going to help suburban kids get out of wealthier, higher performing school districts. The top districts being “escaped” with a little help from taxpayers: Mesa, Tucson, Gilbert, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Chandler and Peoria.
“That 2017 expansion is now on the ballot, thanks to a referendum campaign launched by a group of women who formed Save Our Schools Arizona. A vote for Prop. 305 would allow voucher expansion to take effect. A vote against Prop. 305 would kill the expansion plan.”
Stop the hoax.
More vouchers means less money for the state’s underfunded public schools, which enroll at least 90% of the children in the state.
VOTE NO ON PROP 305.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Voucher programs represent just another agenda aimed at getting the wealthy more access, while leaving people who are most in need, in need. I am disgusted with our system! Thanks for keeping us posted on education issues!
Are you suggesting that a wealthy family, that is already sending their child(ren) to an expensive private school, is really that desperate to get a school voucher for $5,500?
Wealthy families already have school choice. School choice/vouchers are about providing educational assistance to families further down on the economic scale.
Why does it always have to be about “the rich”?
Charles, did you read the article.
Poor kids get 7% of the Az vouchers.
Affluent kids from A and B rated schools get 70% of the vouchers.
Do you ever read what I post or do you just spout whatever nonsense is on your mind?
Yes. Vouchers should be about that, but that is not what is happening.
Let’s be mindful that a wealthy family may be able to send a child(ren) to private school, it does not mean that they forgo the opportunity to save the money by taking full advantage of a program that they can access.
It’s no different than taking advantage of a tax break, yet somehow the rich get the best end of those too.
It’s about the wealthy because the program is not working for under served children.
Parents can use the voucher to shop at Walmart, return for credit, buy clothing
Of course, I read the postings here, and other pro-public school information elsewhere.
I tend to agree, that the participation rate for school choice tends to be higher, in the families which are above the poverty rate.
Middle-class families tend to be more interested in their children’s education. Thus, they will be more responsive to their children’s needs, than families on the very bottom of the income scale.
Single-parent, minority families, where the mother is woefully uneducated herself, will be less likely to learn the procedures to obtain school choice, and complete the process to relocate their children out of the public schools.
I am not at all surprised that poorer families utilize school choice at a lesser rate, than families higher up on the income scale.
yes; taking huge public tax money and finding ways to divvy it up with the wealthy who are already sending kids to private schools