Stay tuned

by David Safier

Arizona's new education empowerment accounts — vouchers by another name, with a new twist to make them even more insidious — will be tested in court Monday. The lawsuit comes from the Arizona School Boards Association. The law is the Goldwater Institute's baby.

I don't know what the arguments against the vouchers will be. Pure vouchers have been struck down in Arizona, mainly because they go to support religious education (70% to 80% of private schools here and across the nation are religious schools). The new law puts the money in "savings accounts" for parents to spend on their children's educations rather than the money going straight from government coffers to the schools. To me, that's a distinction without a difference. We'll see what the court thinks.