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Sep 23 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Is Arizona's education choice policy in jeopardy?

So-called "Save Our Schools" declared victory today, but their victory is ringing hollow. A 🧵 1/7
dailysignal.com/2022/09/23/app…
Beth Lewis, executive director of Save Our Schools Arizona put on her best game face today as she announced that SOS has gathered enough signatures to put the recent expansion of AZ’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program on the ballot. But she doesn't look happy. 2/7
She shouldn't be. SOS needs about 119K valid signatures to refer the ESA expansion to the ballot.

"Valid" is the key word. They only got 142K signatures and the average validity rate is 75%, which would require 150K. They'll need a validity rate of about 84%. 3/7
SOS has seen the writing on the wall. Last week, Beth Lewis offered a litany of excuses to Salon, but most of all she complained about the #DeclineToSign campaign that has clearly hurt their ability to gather signatures. 4/7
The greatest hurdle for SOS is that parents want education choice. A recent poll found that 66% of Arizonans and 75% of parents of school-age children said they support Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. 5/7 …choice.morningconsultintelligence.com/arizona/
Save Our Schools’ assault on education choice at a time when parents need it most may have awakened a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve. 6/7
The coming weeks certainly will see signature challenges and likely will see litigation. One thing is for certain: Arizona parents will be watching. 7/7
dailysignal.com/2022/09/23/app…
FYI @DougDucey @9thFloorAZ @RepBenToma
See this thread by @josephjconnor for more info:

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More from @JasonBedrick

Jason Bedrick Profile picture
Sep 16
Earlier this week, the NY Times launched an assault on Hasidic yeshivas, claiming they leave students unprepared to earn a living.

They relied only on anecdote and innuendo to make their case but provided no data. That's because the data paint a very different story. A 🧵1/ Image
The NYT piece was timed to influence a Board of Regents vote to regulate *all* NY private schools. Despite 350,000 public comments overwhelmingly opposed to the regulations, the Regents voted unanimously to adopt them. There was no debate. 2/
washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-ne…
The pretext for regulation is public funding. The NYT headline claims the yeshivas are "flush with public money" raking in $1 billion over 4 years.

But the schools they're focused on serve 50,000 kids, so that's only $5,000 per pupil. The public schools spend $31K per pupil. 3/
Read 16 tweets
Jason Bedrick Profile picture
Jun 22
Yesterday's SCOTUS decision in Carson v. Makin was rightly decided but not revolutionary. Indeed, the justices themselves emphasized how "unremarkable" it was, given that it flowed directly from the logic of the Trinity Lutheran and Espinoza decisions. 1/
The core of the decision was this line from Espinoza: "A State need not subsidize private education. But once a State decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious."

Yesterday, SCOTUS merely said, "Yes, we really meant that." 2/
As Justice Gorsuch made clear in prior concurrences, the "religious status vs. use" distinction is meaningless. The minority essentially said, "You can be whatever religion you want so long as you aren't religious in the public square." The majority rightly rejected that. 3/
Read 9 tweets
Jason Bedrick Profile picture
Jul 21, 2021
This parental consent form from Scottsdale Unified School District is like something from a dystopian novel.
FYI @DeAngelisCorey @exjon @robbysoave @RJRobb @SethAMandel @bethanyshondark @SethLeibsohn
It’s like something from the fevered nightmares of Alex Jones — you want my kids’ biometric info and to know whether I own guns?

But some bureaucrats actually thought this was a good idea.
Read 5 tweets
Jason Bedrick Profile picture
Apr 16, 2021
When you're reduced to calling for your critics to be silenced, it's clear that your arguments are built on a house of cards.

But what do you expect from the NY Daily News? nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-ope…
No word about how the public schools down the street are doing. How many former students from those schools regularly get NYDN and NYT op-eds calling for a massive overhaul because of the failure of the system?
For those who want to know what's actually going on in Haredi schools, listen to my interview of Dr. Moshe Krakowski, who has spent years studying the schools.

edchoice.org/podcasts/ep-23…
Read 4 tweets
Jason Bedrick Profile picture
Apr 14, 2021
"Education is the one great equalizer that can provide the best way out of a bad situation — it was for me and I know that this is especially true for our low-income and minority children." - Rev. Drew Anderson

azcapitoltimes.com/news/2021/04/1…
Rev. Anderson cites a recent poll showing that 75% of Arizonans support #SchoolChoice, noting:

"The poll shows that minorities and Democrats, of which I am both, support school choice and ESAs even more so than Caucasians and Republicans."
#SchoolChoice is especially important for kids who fell behind due to COVID. As Rev. Anderson wrote:

"People of all parties & races support low-income & Black & brown students (who are now about 12 months behind their white counterparts) receiving the help they desperately need"
Read 6 tweets
Jason Bedrick Profile picture
Dec 21, 2020
It’s amazing how widespread this myth is. It’s pernicious. People who should know better keep spreading it even after being exposed repeatedly to the truth. It’s clearly in bad faith at this point.

edchoice.org/engage/the-rea…
FACT: School choice far predates segregation. Voucher programs were proposed by Thomas Paine in “Rights of Man” (1791) and John Stuart Mill in “On Liberty” (1859). Their arguments had NOTHING to do with race.
FACT: Maine and Vermont have had voucher-like town tuitioning programs since the mid-1800s — they had NOTHING to do with race.
Read 4 tweets

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