Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Arizonans have a history of putting partisanship aside and finding common ground when it comes to resolving our water disputes. With vision and leadership, we have created a thriving economy and secured our water future. It has not been easy, requiring negotiation, cooperation and compromise every step of the way.

How on earth do the Republicans in the state Legislature who voted for the Empowerment Scholarship Account (voucher) bill, or our governor, who signed it, look in the mirror and in good faith, not understand what they have just done.

I ran for office to make a difference. I know with all my heart that the ESA program is helping students because I heard it from one student after the other with my own ears. As I heard these stories from students from all over the state, I knew that all students in Arizona deserve to have a choice.

I must admit, I was very excited when I read the headline that Maricopa County is the fastest-growing county in the nation. It’s not because more is always better; it’s because people from across the country are learning what I’ve known since I was a little boy wandering around my family’s car dealership in Mesa. Maricopa County is a uniquely special place to raise a family, run a business and live a quality life.

I am convinced that Governor Ducey’s proposed plan for higher education provides our best option for creating the future we all want to share.

Charter and private schools are here for the foreseeable future. The right answer is for leaders of the public school system to adopt what the “parallel schools” are doing right to help raise the performance of the traditional public-schools.

We all know about reading, writing and arithmetic, but have you ever thought about the importance of our children learning civics? Arizona is leading a push to make sure civics is a part of our curricula. In 2015, Governor Ducey and legislators made sure students had to pass a civics test to graduate from high school. That begins with this year’s senior class. Arizona was the first state in the nation to make this requirement.

It is time for Arizonans to take a hard look at who really benefits from school choice. While some families may want tax-payer funded options, the dizzying array of choices, combined with lax oversight and weak laws, make Arizona’s taxpayers easy marks for profiteering on the taxpayers’ dime.

On a blog maintained by the Network for Public Education, a blogger recently attacked BASIS.ed and BASIS Charter Schools with a series of falsehoods and innuendo. Ordinarily, we would not dignify such errors with a response, but as the Arizona Capitol Times was going to publish it, and offered us a response, we felt compelled to do so, with facts.

The number of third graders who don’t pass the reading exam in Arizona would fill every seat of Chase Field, with 5,000 kids still waiting in line outside!