Over the last week, there was much discussion of a special session at the State Legislature that would have involved rescinding several ballot initiatives in favor of compromise legislation that would have brought in some reform to the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Private School Voucher Welfare/Scam for the Wealthy System.
Immediately, there were warnings that this would be a bad deal for public education in the long run.
In the social media video below, Arizona State Senator Mitzi Epstein showed all the ways compromise legislation, based on Republican behavior in the past regarding the funding and then pulling back of funding for full-day kindergarten while retaining corporate tax cuts, would backfire on the state’s public schools.
In an email sent to her constituents, Epstein further warned that what Republicans were doing amounted to a “Sophie’s Choice” of compromise legislation, writing:
“It is NOT a “grand bargain,” because those are never grand or a bargain. The Minority’s interests always end up getting hurt or take a net loss in the end.”
The leaders of Save Our Schools Arizona also objected to this “Sophies Choice” of a grand bargain, publishing the below letter on social media.
Yesterday (June 29,) the idea of a special session for this false choice masquerading as a grand bargain faded away thanks to MAGA Republicans at the State Legislature opting to go with the suggestion of one of their gubernatorial candidates, suspected January 6, 2021 co-conspirator and the Representative who just voted against affordable housing, Andy Biggs, who proposed a one-for-one trade where public education activists rescind the voucher reform ballot measure and Republicans would pull back their ballot measure whose language is clearly anti union.
That suggestion died a quick death along with the planning of a special session, which is probably a good thing because now the people can decide at the ballot box this November.
Commenting on Republicans’ desire to leave the current ESA system filled with waste, fraud, and abuse in place, Arizona Governor Katie Hobb’s Communication Director, Christian Slater released the below statement:
In a joint press release, Democratic Legislative Leaders Priya Sundareshan and Oscar De Los Santos offered their perspectives, together writing:
“Republicans created this mess by rushing harmful and misleading ballot referrals through the Legislature, including an attack on teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and other public employees who wish to join a union and negotiate the terms of their employment. Today, they had the opportunity to come together and work with Democrats to pull back these rushed and ill-considered reforms, and once again, they failed Arizona.
Legislative Democrats negotiated in the hopes of getting a deal that would protect public education, strengthen accountability in the ESA voucher program, and stand with working families. Instead, Republican leadership chose politics over solutions, proving they were never serious about fixing the chaos they created.
What we saw today was a failure of leadership from Republicans in both chambers. While Speaker Montenegro and President Petersen stated they were negotiating in good faith – we now know the truth. There will be no special session. Instead, Republicans backtracked on the terms of a deal which were not only widely reported, but which they themselves put together.
Now it’s up to Arizona voters. We have every confidence that Arizona’s voters will pass the Protect Education Act to rein in waste, fraud, and abuse in the ESA voucher program, and will mobilize to protect public education and unions that represent educators, firefighters, and law enforcement.”
The Arizona Education Association, whose designees were negotiating with Legislative Republicans on the prospects of a special session, released the below press release, condemning the Biggs deal:
“The Biggs deal is a non-starter that would be horrible for students, educators, parents, and working families across Arizona. When Republican lawmakers approached us with an offer to pass common-sense voucher reforms and drop their three disastrous referrals (HCR 2040, SCR 1032, and HCR 2048), we were open to good-faith discussions. After Biggs and his extremist allies intervened, their involvement left the Republican caucus divided and unable to negotiate in a serious or constructive way. As a result, we are no longer willing to participate in what has become a political circus. If Republican leadership cannot present a unified, credible proposal, there is no basis for further discussions.
“Every Arizona voter should understand what is happening right now. The latest offer from Legislative Republicans holds the basic rights of working people hostage in exchange for a so-called deal that could cut millions of dollars in funding from the schools serving Arizona children (SCR 1032) while protecting the worst aspects of Arizona’s voucher program (HCR 2048) with a despicable charade of a referral that treats heroic military families as partisan bait. This November, hard-working Arizona voters will remember how Republican politicians fought to keep voucher dollars flowing to the state’s richest families and paying for diamond rings and lingerie.
“This entire Republican debacle has done nothing but bring Arizona’s working people closer. Politicians tried to divide the labor movement, but we emerged stronger and with more solidarity than ever before. We will not even consider a deal that puts Arizona’s fraud-ridden voucher program into our state constitution and risks the cuts to school funding that would come with SCR 1032. Threats to public schools are threats to working families.
“The Protect Education Act has more than enough signatures to make the ballot and survive bad-faith signature challenges. Arizona voters overwhelmingly support the reforms in our initiative, and public polling makes it clear they will reject bad-faith initiatives targeting working people. We will file the Protect Education Act on Thursday, and we look forward to an overwhelming victory at the ballot in November.”
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I participated in an Arizona Town Hall 30 years ago at the Grand Canyon. We had a guy in our group who had been a fiscal analyst for the House Majority. He said there were always elements of the Arizona Republican legislature who would have been happy if all public schools and the taxes that supported them just all went away, and each kid would get a lump of money to take wherever they wanted, of course private religious schools, and for profit run schools. And if they had to have any public schools, they would be with just minimal funding, for minorities of course.
Why is nobody making the point that the voucher program is a means to lock-in republican votes. Regardless of party affiliation, those who accept free non-accountable government monies will want to continue doing so. They will vote republican to keep $7000+ for each child. Vouchers amount to just another republican scheme to affect the vote.