Arizona's "privatization scam" is starving public schools. Trump wants to take it national

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Arizona's "privatization scam" is starving public schools. Trump wants to take it national
Educators call Arizona the “chemistry lab of terrible ideas" as costs spiral, cutting services for students

By Griffin Eckstein
Published April 9, 2025 5:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) In 2022, Arizona lawmakers made a state school voucher program universal, just four years after voters shot down the proposal by a two-to-one margin. Now, at least 42 educators, counselors and other support staff in Mesa Public Schools, Arizona's largest school district, are feeling the hurt, receiving notice that they’re the victims of a reduction in force earlier this year.

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Programs like Arizona’s allow parents to claim more than $7,000 in vouchers for educational expenses – like private school tuition, homeschooling costs, even a piano or ski resort visit – if their kids exit the public school system. The purported goal is to give parents more flexibility over their students’ education and enable working-class families to attend non-public schools.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January prioritizing federal government support for “educational choice” initiatives in the states, many of which have taken action to create voucher programs since.

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Marisol Garcia, the president of the Arizona Education Association, the state’s labor union for public school teachers, told Salon in an interview that the state had become known as the “chemistry lab of terrible ideas.”

“We hit a head last year when we got to spending almost $700 million out of the general fund to the universal voucher system,” she said. “That's money that could be going to not just education – because our general fund provides for education – but healthcare, transportation, housing, a lot of the money that goes to state-funded wildfire protection. The impact is now broader than just education and students, and it keeps getting bigger.” ......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/04/09/arizonas-privatization-scam-is-starving-public-schools-wants-to-take-it-national/