The Arizona Advocate

Let’s have a real conversation about ESA without the political talking points.

My sped daughter was abused at her previous school. After everything our family experienced, including hostility, damage to my vehicle, and a complete breakdown of trust with the district, that environment was no longer safe for her.

ESA changed that.

When we left, my daughter was nearly 1.5 grade levels behind in math, despite bringing home report cards filled with A’s. On paper educationally she was thriving. In reality, she was falling behind.

Today, ESA gives her access to educational opportunities we could never have provided otherwise. She receives therapies, one-on-one math tutoring, STEM education, and individualized support that fits her needs. The difference in her confidence, learning, and emotional well-being has been remarkable. The daily overstimulation and outbursts that once consumed so much of her life are now rare.

That is why this initiative concerns me.

According to the language of the proposal, eligibility for many families would be restricted, and some students could be required to return to a public school setting before qualifying for ESA again. For families like mine, that raises a serious question:

Why should a child who finally found success be forced back into an environment that previously failed or harmed them just to access the educational option that is already working?

Another concern appears near the end of the proposal.

At the same time the measure appropriates $1.75 MILLION to government agencies, it also grants the State Board of Education an eight-month EXEMPTION from normal rulemaking procedures.

Parents should ask why expedited authority is needed when the education of thousands of Arizona children is at stake.

As a parent, I think it’s fair to ask questions.

If this measure is truly about helping children, why is so much emphasis placed on enforcement, investigations, and government administration?

Why are additional funds needed for agencies and attorneys?

Why are normal rulemaking procedures being temporarily waived?

Most importantly, why are families whose children are finally succeeding being asked to trust the same system that failed them before?

ESA is not a political talking point for my family.

It’s the reason my daughter is thriving.



Save Our Schools Arizona Do better.

~posted by Jordan Ochoa

individuals that build wealth and create lasting success tend to think differently than the average person.

They are often more focused on long-term outcomes, future opportunities, and generational impact.

They tend to be legacy-minded families, focused on maximizing those opportunities to create generational success.

This long-term mindset often leads them to invest more time in planning and making decisions that can produce significant benefits over time.

Families with a longer-term outlook often invest more time researching schools, educational opportunities, seeking out resources, and programs like ESA that benefit their child's future.

Research in economics and sociology has found that families with greater financial stability or wealth are generally more likely to make decisions based on future returns, such as education, career development, investments, and asset building.

While most people spend more of their time and energy dealing with immediate needs and short-term concerns, poorer and many middle class families, by contrast, are more likely to be focused on present day needs and short-term challenges.

I find the individuals who are proactive, naturally inclined to:

▪️ research
▪️ investigate
▪️ willing to question things
▪️ take the time to understand how systems work
▪️ think outside the box

tend to find and benefit from programs like ESA.

It's human behavior to trust and follow what appears “normal” to the majority. To follow the crowd.

However, a smaller percentage of people are willing to question, investigate, and challenge what’s commonly accepted.

KTAR walked into it on this one 😄
Quite a bit of intelligence in the comment section. You should check it out.

👉ESA is available to all income levels. Many are used for homeschooling, charter and private schools. If you love your local public school, the ESA money follows your kids to the public school. Easy peasy 😉

👉ESA can be accessed by any student/family who chooses to school outside of the public school system regardless of income. 📢

👉Someone who wants to use ESA funds for home school is someone who takes responsibility for their child's education. 🎯💯

That isn't to say that those whose child is in public school don't care, but those who don't care, aren't going to go through the effort of homeschooling.🎯💯

https://www.facebook.com/share/1EYNf7Nipx/

A new analysis found that students from high-income ZIP codes are enrolled in Arizona’s school voucher program at a higher rate than students from low-income postal zones.

Data compiled by The Associated Press shows that 11.2% of high-income ZIP code students receive Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) funds. Meanwhile, just 4% of low-income ZIP code students use the vouchers. The analysis covers students ages 5 to 17.

Read more from Shira Tanzer here: https://ktar.com/arizona-education/voucher-esa-income-zip-codes/5880836/

Photo: Associated Press' Julio Cortez

I ran to Walmart to get donuts. A woman is in the parking lot asking people are they a registered voter. Then she asks me if I want to sign "to help ESA."

So I took her clipboard and pulled up chat GPT, and auto-texted what it said at the top. Here it is:

Something about them trying to get this on the ballot, it strengthens transparency accountability and fiscal integrity in the empowerment scholarship account program without infringing on a parental choice mandates the department of education to establish an online marketplace payment system as defined by July 1st 2027 through which all esa purchases must be processed directly with approved vendors eliminates reimbursements and debit cards after that date students with disabilities.

May request an alternative payment method including reimbursement for specialized services unavailable through the marketplace system it restricts allowable esa expenditures explicitly prohibiting non-educational and luxury purchases as requires qualified tutors qualified tutoring service providers and qualified School personnel with unsupervised student contact to hold valid fingerprint clearance cards.

Permanently disqualifies parents who knowingly misuse monies with intent to defraud and bars disqualified parents from enrolling any child in the program requires students not in both full-time at a qualified school to participate in an approved examination as defined beginning in 2027 to 2028 direct Ade to maintain list of approved examinations and curricula including faith-based options requires quarterly reporting to the attorney general on vendor payments disqualifications and recovered funds.

Sorry I don't know why I chat GPT decided to give it to me without one ounce of punctuation. But anyways I told her would you please stop talking to me in the background while I'm trying to auto text so I can understand what this is truly about. She kept saying oh it's to help ESA to avoid fraud. I said okay but I still want to do this so I'm going to need you to stop talking in the background. So then she's approaching other people. She tried to coerce me into signing by telling me it helped esa here's a pin let me find a pin. Anyways I told her this is not supporting esa. And then everybody she started to approach I would tell them she is not being honest with the way she's explaining this so I wouldn't sign it.

She approached three different people while I was standing there.

So I'm talking loudly and telling them as she's approaching. They kept walking off, so eventually she headed to her car and said Jesus loves you as she's getting in the car. I said well I was raised to believe that what God loves is the TRUTH and the people that you are working for supporting and promoting lies!!

And, if you have to lie to get people to sign your stuff that's not okay.

If what you stand on is good enough, you shouldn't have to twist manipulate and be dishonest about it. So she got in her car and drove away. 😄😄

"As the US Supreme Court has affirmed, a state cannot treat every parent as a potential threat simply because some parents do wrong. That presumption of suspicion — applied universally, before any evidence of harm — is, in the court’s own word, ‘repugnant’ to American tradition." - HSLDA President James R. Mason

Blue state bill targets homeschoolers in latest government power grab Connecticut may become the first state in 50 years to roll back homeschool freedom as lawmakers advance a bill targeting parental rights in education.