Recently, the Protect Education Now committee filed signatures with the Secretary of State with an initiative that would essentially dismantle the popular school choice program in Arizona called Empowerment Scholarship Account (or ESA). The National Education Association (based in Washington D.C.) has dumped over $7 million into Arizona for this initiative. We’re also seeing support for these Anti-ESA efforts from a local organization called Save Our Schools1.
Besides the fact that the organizers of the anti-ESA ballot initiative used a convicted sexual offender and two convicted human smugglers to collect thousands of signatures from Arizona voters, their motivations for this battle are arguably worse.
On the surface, they present themselves as well-meaning reformers who simply want to ensure ESAs are not exploited or used for fraudulent purposes. This may have merit if there were actual widespread fraud. However, as AZLovesESAs has pointed out in their “Myths vs. Facts” document, only “…about 2% of ESA purchases are unallowable expenses (including errors in documentation and good faith purchases assumed to be allowable) while only 0.3% represent fraud or egregious purchases. To put it in context, the rate of misuse at a variety of programs such as Medicaid is 7.4%, food stamps is 9.3%, and unemployment insurance is 14.4%.”
The everyday Arizona parents who benefit from the blessing of ESAs need to know the truth: the left does not care whether ESAs are used properly. This kind of language is simply a flanking attempt to regulate ESAs out of existence.
But a deeper question remains: why do they care? Why not let Arizona parents choose the best educational path for their own children?
The answer can be summed up in a word: control.
Scripture is clear that it is parents who hold the responsibility to educate and disciple their children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Ephesians 6:4). Government-controlled, secular, godless education is nowhere to be found. Not only is it foreign to Scripture, it would have been foreign to our founding fathers as well.
And yet, these things do not matter to public education champions. The underlying driver behind these anti-ESA efforts is the belief that children are a shared entity between the parents and the state. In other words, parents should not have complete control in deciding how their children are educated. To allow parents full freedom in the realm of education is unthinkable to them. According to their view, Caesar must have a say.
This kind of thinking is not only misguided and false–it’s losing ground fast. The left knows this, and their increased zeal for dismantling ESAs serves as proof. The parents of the 100,000+ children already on the ESA program have taken ground and asserted their rightful authority in deciding how their kids are educated. Liberty is winning on the education front in Arizona, and the left is terrified.
If we want to ensure that the freedom of school choice remains in Arizona, we must press our advantage. Keep using ESAs, keep telling your friends, and let the enemies of school choice know that the state does not get to decide how we train our children.
