clint bolick

Ooops, there it is!

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Cross-posted from RestoreReason.com.

We knew it was coming and awaited it with dread. And, drumroll please…crash goes the cymbal! Yes, here it is, this year’s attempt to exponentially expand Arzona’s voucher (Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, or ESA) program. Of course, the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) chief water carrier for Arizona, Senator Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, is the one proposing the expansion. Lesko claims the expansion of ESAs will “not lead to a mass exodus of children from public schools.” I, for the most part, agree with that statement since Arizona parents have made it clear district schools are their choice with 80% of students attending district schools and another almost 15% in charter schools.

But, to infer a massive voucher expansion will have no negative impact on district schools is disingenuous at best. No matter how slowly students may attrit from district schools, each student’s departure leaves behind a 19% budget shortfall. That’s because there are numerous fixed costs (teacher salaries, facility maintenance, utilities, buses, etc.) that cannot be reduced student by student. The siphoning of dollars from our district schools has been steadily increasing and just exacerbates an already inadequately resourced system.

This isn’t the first year the Legislature has attempted to expand the voucher program. In fact, they’ve been successful in expansions every year since the ESA program was launched in 2011. This isn’t even the first time a full expansion has been attempted, with a very similar proposal going down in flames last year due to public outcry and a perceived conflict with securing voter approval of Prop. 123. This year though, Lesko has sweetened the deal by requiring the testing of students attending private schools on vouchers. She says she “doesn’t personally think this requirement is necessary,” but obviously is trying to defuse the argument from voucher opponents that there is no accountability or return on investment for vouchered students.

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Ducey’s appoints notorious anti-public education figure to AZ Supreme Court

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Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com

Governor Ducey’s spokesman, responding to an EJ Montini column critical of his appointment of Clint Bolick to the AZ Supreme Court.

Ugh, what a week. My brain is so crowded with things to be irate about I don’t even know where to start, but I’ll go with waking up Wednesday to learn that Governor Ducey had appointed Goldwater Institute litigator Clint Bolick to the state’s Supreme Court. Bolick has no experience as a judge but a long history of attacking public education and public workers, as detailed in the Montini column sneered at by Ducey’s communications director. And, hoo boy, does Bolick take a dim view of workers’ rights in general!

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That Shawnna Bolick sure seems to have her priorities in order

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Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com

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I met Shawnna Bolick two years ago when we were on a Channel 12 panel to discuss Ann Romney’s upcoming speech to the the 2012 RNC Convention. The topic was, naturally, how women perceived the Romney campaign. At one point during the segment, Bolick looked me right in the eye and pointedly informed me, anchor Mark Curtis, and the entire viewing audience how she had always paid for her own birth control, thank you very much. The obvious implication of that was that Shawnna Bolick was responsible, unlike those slutty-sluts such as Sandra Fluke who rely on the government to hand them birth control. It’s a safe assumption that what Bolick meant was that her private health insurance covered her birth control, which was the exact thing Fluke, who was required by Georgetown University to purchase their private insurance plan (which did not cover contraception) wanted to argue for before Congress. It never had anything to do with the government paying for it, not that it mattered to Bolick, who was determined to push the “pay for your own birth control, floozies” canard.

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