Newly elected governor Katie Hobbs, in her inauguration speech, vowed to repeal the universal vouchers, officially known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) � double-speak for if you’re wealthy, we will continue to support your wealth and the future of your children’s wealth, while doing our best to insure those who struggle financially will continue to do so. Bridget Dowd, reporting for KJZZ, said “According to the governor’s staff, if not repealed, the 2022 expansion of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program will cost $1.5 billion over the next ten years. They say about 75% of the families newly enrolled under expanded vouchers would have attended a private or homeschool anyway. A significant portion of the remaining 25%, students who have attended public schools in the past, are from wealthy areas that don’t receive state aid because of high property tax revenues.�
Our Republican majority vows that Hobbs will never succeed in repealing this law. Continued from the KJZZ report, “Republican Sen. T.J. Shope called the proposal “hysterical.� “What about the 30% that weren’t [already attending private schools]? We’re gonna take it away from them? I don’t think that’s going to be a winning argument there," Shope said. "I don’t believe that those folks will just go ahead and drift quietly into the night.� I admit, I’m feeling a bit hysterical. As I canvassed with Save Our Schools this fall, I know most Arizonans don’t support ESAs. But the people who are getting kickbacks from public school taxes? They support whatever money they can keep from the kids who cannot afford to go to private schools.
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