Temperatures are not the only things heating up in Arizona.
There is also the debate over a new proposal involving Empowerment Scholarship Accounts or vouchers and Proposition 123.
Approved by voters in May 2016, Proposition 123 allows Arizona to use a portion of land trust revenue to direct more funding to public schools without raising taxes. Final language of the new proposal is still being drafted, but state Sen. JD Mesnard, R-Chandler, said it would go before voters and “ensure a few things” for the people of Arizona.
“One, we want to protect school choice, as that is something that Arizona has become the gold standard in,” Mesnard told The Center Square. “We want to make sure families are protected because they’ve been a target recently from some on the left, and in addition, we want to see a significant increase in teacher pay.”
In Arizona, an Empowerment Scholarship Account is an account administered by the state Department of Education. It is funded by state tax dollars to provide education options for students who qualify for an ESA.
Nearly 88,000 students in Arizona are enrolled in ESAs.
“An ESA consists of 90% of the state funding that would have otherwise been allocated to the school district or charter school for the qualified student (does not include federal or local funding),” the Arizona Department of Education states on its website. “By accepting an ESA, the student's parent or guardian is signing a contract agreeing to provide an education that includes at least the following subjects: reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science.”
Funding from an ESA can be used to pay for several things including private school tuition, curriculum fees, home education and tutoring.
Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, said Proposition 123 in its current state has been good for Arizona.
“Prop. 123 gave districts the flexibility to invest in what matters most to their communities — expanding career and technical education, hiring special education teachers, making overdue maintenance, and most commonly, raising salaries to retain the excellent educators our students deserve,” Garcia told The Center Square.
But Garcia said the new proposal “strips local control and redirects Prop 123 funding into a rigid new state-run system” that the education association leader said will decide which teachers deserve raises.
