Despite Arizona’s recent increase in crime and shortage of affordable housing, Gov. Katie Hobbs has crafted a budget aimed at limiting families’ access to school choice for the third year in a row.
Her recently disclosed budget plan aims to dismantle Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program (ESA), the country’s most successful school choice program, while failing to account for more than $800 million in statutorily necessary Medicaid spending.
This is the worst kind of budgetary mismanagement.
Indeed, while her office was failing to meet its basic financial responsibilities, the governor chose to repeat the failed policy platform of the previous two years, waging war on families rather than addressing the state’s most pressing concerns.
Hobbs wants to punish parents for using vouchers
Her crusade against ESAs, which already serve over 80,000 Arizona children from all socioeconomic backgrounds, is ludicrous.
In her last State of the State address, she even argued that allowing parents to choose the finest education for their children is equal to “scamming Arizonans.”
Hobbs now wants to economically penalize thousands of ESA families who wish to educate their children outside of union-controlled settings.
As she stated in her speech, “Our children deserve the best public education.” “Public education is the key to opportunity, security, and freedom.”
Governor opposes ESAs, despite parents’ concerns
But why do these children deserve only the best that public education can offer, rather than the best that any education, public or private, could offer a child?
Despite having received a private school education, Hobbs has consistently opposed educational opportunities for others, including the original ESA program, which serviced only vulnerable special education kids.
In 2011, a supermajority of her colleagues in the Arizona House voted in support of providing educational options to special education pupils, but the governor has consistently opposed such chances for all families, regardless of need.
So it’s perhaps unsurprising that her latest proposal — a rehash of her attempt to repeal the entire program for all children — would continue to try to prevent families from benefiting from the ESA program, while also spending even more money to force Arizonans to subsidize the public school system at a much higher taxpayer cost.
Unfortunately, this follows a pattern for Hobbs
Unfortunately, Hobbs’ decision to prioritize the interests of government-operated entities over the needs of the families they are meant to serve is consistent with her policies throughout state government.
For example, even as homeless encampments like “The Zone” in Phoenix degenerated into public health risks, the governor vetoed legislation limiting their expansion.
Last November, voters had to take matters into their own hands by passing Proposition 312 to ensure that local governments enforce basic public health and safety rules rather than turning a blind eye, leaving families and small business owners to bear the consequences.
At the same time, despite Hobbs’ latest budget proposal’s minor face-saving measures to support border security, Arizonans may be forgiven for asking how such gestures connect with her previous vetoes of border enforcement bills, which she characterized as “anti-immigrant.”
Hobbs’ budget shows her priorities are out of touch
Similar to her attacks on families who use ESAs, the governor has opted to make it far more difficult for new house construction in Maricopa County, despite Arizona residents having a significant lack of affordable housing.
For example, she recently authorized the Arizona Department of Water Resources to enforce new laws aimed to halt growth in Arizona’s fastest developing districts, even when there are no expected groundwater problems.
Her actions prompted the Goldwater Institute, where I work, to bring a lawsuit against this overreach of presidential power, similar to how the institute is challenging government officials who attempt to regulate how parents educate their children.
Hobbs’ decision to attack school choice in her (unbalanced) budget, while increasing the state’s housing and crime problems, sends a clear statement about her priorities:
Progressive politics outweigh Arizona families’ concerns.