AZ Voucher Session a "Needless Distraction"?
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May 19, 2009
Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Governor Jan Brewer wants state lawmakers to meet to create a private school tax credit benefiting about 400 disabled and foster children.
With only six weeks to go before the state's new budget year, Janice Palmer, director of governmental relations for the Arizona School Boards Association, says the legislature should be concentrating instead on finding a way to fund education for the state's one million public school students.
"A special session for about 400 special-ed students versus 120,000 special-ed students that are in public schools; it really shows that the priorities are not correct."
When the Arizona Supreme Court ruled recently that private school vouchers for the 400 disabled and foster children were unconstitutional, state schools chief Tom Horne said the decision hurt Arizona's reputation as a leader in school-choice reform.
Janice Palmer says she has no problem with choice.
"We absolutely believe in choice, and believe that if parents want to send their kids to a private school they should pay for it. There should not be public dollars going to support private schools, many of them religious schools. And that's why the Supreme Court ruled the way it did."
Dana Naimark, president of Children's Action Alliance, says vouchers are a distraction when there are so many critical issues facing Arizona families, issues made more pressing in the wake of cuts to the current year's state budget.
"There are 10 thousand kids in foster care, thousands of kids with disabilities. Many services have been cut, very critical services, and kids are doing without, and kids are in danger."
Voucher supporters say parents should be able to choose the private or public school that best meets the needs of their children.