Credit: Ralph Freso / Getty
Last Friday, while the country reeled from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, Arizona made history of a different sort. Legislators in the Grand Canyon State passed a universal school voucher bill that, once signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, will become the most wide-reaching school privatization plan in the country.
In his January State of the State address, Ducey called on Arizona lawmakers to send him bills that would “expand school choice any way we can,” and the Republican-dominated legislature obliged, delivering last Friday’s bill, which will open a preexisting program for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) up to the entire state. 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 schools, homeschool expenses, tutoring, online classes, education […]
Years ago I was substitute teaching in Tucson, and was sent to a “school” that was like something out of a surreal movie. The administrators were no where to be found, probably out getting more money for their “cash cow”……and the students, who were all older “special needs” teenagers, wandered in and out of the class rooms as they pleased, talking on their cell phones, and playing video games on the computers. One day I turned up and I, and another man who was a retired Principal, were the only adults there. The retired Principal was absolutely livid, and I, having no idea of what to do, sat down in the room I was given and waited to see if any of the students would come in. No one came in to class, so I left when I had waited out my time. Those teenagers were about to be released into the work force and adult world, and frankly, they had no clue how to function.
Now there will be millions of unwanted children born to neglect and poverty, in an America that demands they be born, but refuses to pay to support them. I feel like the Republicans are just plain determined to make America the stupidest, most mediocre, and violent. country on the planet. Sad, because we were once a country that valued excellence, and innovation.
I totally agree with you, Lauren. I don’t know what happened to the USA in which I grew up in. It is now a much different and degraded country, as is noticed by the Democrats and all the other great countries of the world.