Okay with No Accountability for ESA funding, Arizona MAGA Republicans Stick it to Deaf and Blind Children

MAGA Extremist Republicans in the Arizona State Legislature, otherwise known under the deceptive title of the “Freedom Caucus” are at it again.

This time, their more extreme members, led by Jake Troll Farm-Fake Elector Hoffman, are making life harder for deaf and blind children who attend the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind.

Let us say this again.

These “public servants,” who are devoted to taking away reproductive freedom from women, greater voting access to everyone, and civil rights from LGBTQ children, are now making it harder for deaf and blind children to get a stable long-term educational environment by forcing Senate legislators to only approve a four-year continuation of the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind.

Not only will this attack harm the ability of #ASDB to provide stability to the families and students it supports, but will throw off the Auditor General’s schedule… pic.twitter.com/YcYXDiAEFr

— Arizona Senate Democrats (@AZSenateDems) April 15, 2023

This is a school that has been ably serving deaf and blind children, mostly in the Tucson and Phoenix areas since 1912.

That is far longer than the state’s charter schools that started in the 1990s which were first given a 15-year contract to serve children when their programs were approved and twenty-year ones after renewal.

The Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind has had greater accountability measures (just check with the Arizona Auditor General) than all those private schools the MAGA Republicans, including Mr. Hoffman, are showering public monies from the State Treasurer to through the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.

Apparently, most State Senators, including Republicans like Ken Bennett and David Gowan favored giving the school an eight-year continuation.

Unfortunately, these same MAGA Republicans who have no qualms about giving mostly rich families public dollars to go to the private indoctrination center of their choice with no strings attached wanted to only give the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind a two-year continuation and had to be persuaded to go for four when five years could not persuade enough of the extremist wing of the former Party of Lincoln.

What gall.

Democratic State Senate Leader Mitzi Epstein posted:

The AZ School for the Deaf and Blind provides an excellent education.

The bill to continue the school should have been for 8 years. This Republican plan for 4 years is a flat-out abuse of power.

…see news article in comment https://t.co/fraMvoCPRT

— Sen. Mitzi Epstein (@MitziEpstein) April 14, 2023

I am actually going to disagree a little with Senator Epstein.

Yes, the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind should receive a longer continuation than four years and perhaps they will after the State House (which did go for eight years) and Senate meet to work out a deal.

However, a school that should have demonstrated it can ably serve children for over 100 years should have been given what charter schools that have been around since the mid-1990s and early 2000s were eligible for.

A twenty-year continuation.

Hopefully, this episode will serve as another example to the voters in Arizona of what the current vintage of the Republican Party is all about.

What sane person would want to support a party whose program highlights hurting deaf and blind children?

Those that do are the ones that truly need psychological intervention.