Nope, not referring to North Korea or Iran, but the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), The Goldwater Institute and The Center for Arizona Policy led by Cathi Herrod. All of Arizona’s GOP legislators are or have recently been members of ALEC. Led by Representative Debbie Lesko, ALEC’s Arizona Chair, they have introduced no less than 20 ALEC model bills including those that:
- Criminalize undocumented workers, stripping native-born Americans of their citizenship rights and requiring that all materials disseminated by state agencies be written in English only;
- Encourage the privatization of state prisons to the benefit of the private prison industry;
- Disenfranchise tens of thousands of Arizonans via voter suppression bills
- Attack workers by undermining unions and collective bargaining and eliminating public employment through outsourcing and privatizing of government functions;
- Attack public education through private school voucher programs;
- Attempt to prevent implementation of healthcare reform, and
- Attack federal environmental regulation by attempting to deny the federal government the ability to supersede weak state environmental legislation.
SB1062, the so-called religious freedom (but really about state-sanctioned discrimination against gays and others) bill that Governor Brewer vetoed last week, was being pushed by Cathi Herrod and her Center for Arizona Policy. The veto was a fairly significant setback for Herrod, but don’t worry, she has plenty of other tricks up her sleeve. On next week’s House Education Committee agenda, is SB1237, which passed the Senate on a party line vote. This bill expands the amount of this private school voucher to include the charter school additional assistance weight as well as 90% of the base support level funding the student would have otherwise received if they had attend a school district. This is a significant dollar increase as the additional assistance amount is $1,684 for K-8 and $1,962 for high school.
This bill is totally about increasing the diversion of public school funding to unaccountable private schools. Not only is our GOP-led legislature taking orders from Cathi Herrod, but our State Superintendent of Public Instruction recently robocalled public school families to entice them to take state (taxpayer) funding to attend private schools. When questioned about this, Huppenthal retorted that he is “the Superintendent of Public Instruction, not of Public Schools.”
Vouchers, by any other name, is model ALEC legislation. ”Wherever you see states expanding vouchers, charters, and other forms of privatization, wherever you see states lowering standards for entry into the teaching profession, wherever you see states opening up new opportunities for profit-making entities, wherever you see the expansion of for-profit online charter schools, you are likely to find legislation that echoes the ALEC model.”
It is important for people to understand that one can’t be pro community public schools while also being pro vouchers and school choice. Despite what the privatization advocates are touting, school choice, and the various methods for providing options (empowerment scholarship accounts [vouchers], student tuition organizations, etc.), do not generally produce better results, especially when comparing similar populations. In addition, this is a zero sum game. When money is taken from public schools and diverted to for-profit charters, private and parochial schools, it begins a downward spiral that is very difficult for public schools to recover from. In addition, open enrollment promotes competition over collaboration not just between schools, but also on the part of parents who act in the interest of their child without concern for all children.
The bottom line is that community public schools perform a huge public good. In many cases, they are the thread that binds communities together. They helped put America on the path to greatness and they are still where 85 percent of Arizona students are educated. We don’t talk about how fire and police departments should be run by like a business or compete with one another for their raw product. Public community schools should be treated no differently. They are entrusted with an awesome responsibility, staffed by dedicated professionals, take all children who come through their doors and work against all odds to achieve their mission. They need you on-board advocating for their success. Please contact the members of the House Education Committee prior to Monday, March 10th and tell them to fail SB1237. It is not in the best interest of our students or our state and will only serve to enrich those who would make profit on our public education dollars.
