Many school districts across Arizona will be welcoming students back as early as this week. That means tens of thousands of teachers and staff are already working tirelessly to prepare their classrooms (out of their own pockets). This makes us ask – if the state adequately funded public schools, wouldn’t these basic learning items be covered? Short answer: yes. 

Arizona teachers and parents are forced to equip their own classrooms, while publicly-funded ESA vouchers are being used for gourmet espresso machines, chicken coops, trampolines, out-of-state waterskiing lessons, and home improvement projects. We can’t make sense of it either. 

Public School Enrollment on the Rise: Special interests, extremist politicians and voucher pushers (we admit, that was redundant) would have us believe that public school enrollment is dwindling while private school voucher demand is through the roof… but that’s definitely not the case. 

In many districts, public school enrollment is skyrocketing and districts are struggling to accommodate the growing number of students. Recently, a district in Buckeye reported it had converted its gymnasium into classrooms to handle their student boom. West Maricopa districts Agua Fria and Tolleson are “bursting at the seams.” Families are in no way walking away from public education — but growing enrollment means growing needs from the state, and Arizona remains mired at 48th in the US in K-12 spending.   

While ESA Vouchers Dwindle:  After the initial enrollment explosion, the AZ Department of Education (ADE) is now reporting declines in ESA voucher enrollment. According to the Arizona Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl, ESA voucher enrollment declined from approximately 61,000 students to 56,000 students in June as families make decisions about staying with the program or moving back to public schools. Frankly, we aren’t surprised by this 8% drop in enrollment. Thousands of parents have filed complaints against the ADE and ESA Director Christine Accurso, claiming she is mismanaging the program, opening it to fraud and abuse, and prioritizing wealthy religious schools over special needs students. Rural parents are making the case that the voucher program is not designed for them, and that ADE is refusing to accommodate rural families. 

Make no mistake — despite these struggles, the ESA voucher program is still on track to cost $900 million by next year, jeopardizing our entire public education system and bankrupting the state. Special interests and Supt. Horne’s ADE continues to pour massive advertising dollars into diverting public funds to private pockets, even targeting low-income and Spanish-speaking families with a cynical fantasy that the program will work for them. Stay tuned for more alerts and a roadmap for fighting to take back public education in our state!

Around the Horne

Superintendent Tom Horne is “doubling down” on pushing strict classroom discipline over proven approaches like Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Horne has decided (seemingly based solely on a single letter he received in 2011) that the biggest problem with Arizona education is SEL, which he claims distracts from “core academics” despite the mountains of research showing the benefits of Social Emotional Learning for student learning. Horne also claims that SEL is driving teachers out of the classroom, ignoring the outcry from classroom teachers and administrators, who know that emotional and mental health is a foundation on which academic success is built. 

This week, Horne’s ADE doubled down on this approach, training teachers to use old-fashioned forms of classroom management, such as “increasingly focused forms of physical attention to stop a student from goofing off in class” including squirm-inducing stares and silently standing over students. Experienced classroom teachers know that above all, strong relationships and building an inclusive classroom community are far more effective ways to manage a classroom. Horne’s draconian approach fails to account for neurodiversity, learning differences, and a host of other issues that might be impacting a student’s behavior such as hunger and trauma..  

Handling behavior issues solely with “strict discipline” is backward and ineffective, just another example of Tom Horne’s out-of-touch approach to running the Arizona Department of Education.