AZ Conservatives Want to Throw Money at School Vouchers

by David Safier

How often do I get a chance to turn the phrase “throw money” on conservatives in an educational context? What fun! And, as Homer Simpson loves to say, “It’s funny because it’s true!”

House Speaker Jim Weiers is beside himself because the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled the state can’t provide vouchers for adopted and disabled children to attend private schools, meaning that the $5 million for the program was cut from the state budget. So Weiers had a brilliant idea: take money from the $9 million left over in the legislative budget (they get to keep what they don’t spend each year) and give some of it to Tom Horne to fund the voucher program.

Horne loves the idea. If Weiers can get him the money, Horne says he’ll restart the voucher programs. Which the courts have already ruled are illegal. Using money that very possibly can’t be transfered to him in the first place.

I love watching wingnut conservatives lapse into self parody like this. I can only hope it’s evidence that they’re clutching desperately to their waning power in the state and the country. (Hurry up, November! Hurry up! What’s taking you so long???)

Special Bonus Feature: Horne hires old conservative standby. According to The Dry Heat, Horne has hired Kenneth Starr to help defend the Department of Education against the recent ruling that the state has to spend more money to fund ELL programs. How long will it be until Starr manages to tie ELL funding to oral sex? Stay tuned. [In case the name doesn’t ring a bell, that’s the same Ken Starr who was the Whitewater Prosecutor and brought the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton relationship into our living rooms. Just so you know I wasn’t making a gratuitous sexual reference.]