School Choice Succeeds in Arkansas

Education Freedom Accounts show results both academically and financially

By Tommy Schultz. He is CEO of the American Federation for Children. Excerpts:

"In the program’s second year, its students outperformed nearly 60% of students nationwide in math and English on standardized assessments."

"Education Freedom Accounts give priority to the core costs of a K-12 education—tuition, which accounts for 81% of spending, plus curriculum, supplies and testing—with sensible caps limiting transportation and extracurricular expenses to no more than 25% each of a single account. Parents know exactly what they can and can’t buy" 

The New York Times supports the use of standardized tests (like the ACT and SAT) in undergraduate admissions

See A Great University Undermines Its Mission. Excerpts:

"The committee concluded that scores on the SAT and ACT, the main standardized tests for college admissions, did a better job measuring student readiness for college than high school grades. High test scores were particularly good at finding talented students from low-income families and underrepresented minority groups. For these reasons, the committee recommended the system continue to require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores.

The university’s leaders disregarded the report."

"the University of California began refusing to accept SAT or ACT scores, even from students who wanted to submit them"

"University leaders wrongly claimed that it would make admissions fairer and more equitable."

"The results have been terrible. At the University of California, San Diego, a faculty group last year reported “a steep decline in the academic preparation” among entering students. Last fall, for example, nearly 12 percent of first-year U.C.S.D. undergraduates were not qualified to take precalculus, a low-level class — up from only 0.5 percent in 2020." 

"Reading and writing skills have also deteriorated, and professors say they must spend time teaching elementary skills."

"the declines in preparedness among University of California students are larger than the regression elsewhere"

"[they] have essentially randomized aspects of the admissions process, admitting unprepared students while rejecting many who could thrive there."

"Even Janet Napolitano, who was the university president in 2020 and recommended a test-blind policy then, now favors its reversal."

"The critics claim that the two tests are biased and therefore a cause of inequities. The evidence indicates otherwise. Raj Chetty, a Harvard University economist, points out that other tests show similarly large economic and racial gaps. One example is the NAEP, a test of elementary and middle-school students for which almost nobody studies. This pattern suggests that SAT tutoring, which critics often blame for score gaps, plays only a limited role, perhaps because free tutoring is available from Khan Academy and elsewhere."

"The SAT and ACT . . . do appear to measure preparedness for highly selective colleges better than almost any other indicator, research shows." 

"Some other parts of applications — like student essays, extracurricular activities and teacher recommendations — are, in fact, biased toward affluent students."

"In 1970 only 7 percent of college freshmen nationwide had a high-school grade average of A or higher; today the share is roughly 40 percent."

"Any fair, reliable test would have results resembling those of the SAT and ACT."

"the test scores are especially useful at identifying strong students from low-income communities. When such a student receives even a pretty good score, it can be a sign of high potential." 

Who Should Control Education?

By Alex Tokarev, Kristin Tokarev, Mitchell Ashley. From The Independent Institute.

"President Jimmy Carter wanted the support of the government teachers’ unions. So, during his reelection campaign, he created the U.S. Department of Education, promising it would improve America’s schools.

Has it?

After more than 45 years, billions of taxpayer dollars, and endless regulations under a bloated and ever-growing education bureaucracy, American students are falling behind many of their peers around the world. Reading scores have declined. Math scores are down. Parents are frustrated. Teachers complain they’re drowning in paperwork.

If the Department of Education hasn’t solved these problems after nearly half a century, why assume giving it more power will?

President Donald Trump says it won’t. His proposal to eliminate the department and return authority to states and ultimately to parents triggered predictable outrage. Critics warn it would “destroy public education.”

That’s nonsense.

The Department of Education doesn’t run America’s schools. States and local districts already do. Closing the department wouldn’t close schools. It would simply reduce Washington’s role. Education Secretary Linda McMahon recently spoke on the necessity to return control to parents and local public servants so that they can better serve the children. And that’s how it should be. Parents know their children better than bureaucrats in Washington ever will. Local communities understand their own needs. A rural district in Wyoming faces different challenges than schools in Chicago. Yet federal rules often treat them as if they’re the same. One-size-fits-all rarely fits anyone well.

Supporters of federal oversight say Washington provides accountability. Accountability to whom? Parents can vote out ineffective school board members. They can attend meetings. They can confront local officials. They can’t fire federal bureaucrats. The farther decisions move from families, the less influence families have.

Then there’s competition. Economist Milton Friedman argued that taxpayers can fund education without having the government manage it. Instead of subsidizing school systems, fund students. Let parents choose among public, charter, private, or other options. Competition changes behavior.

Restaurants compete for patrons. Stores try their best to satisfy shoppers. Businesses that disappoint customers lose them. Most public schools don’t face that pressure. Students are assigned largely by ZIP code. If the local school performs poorly, many parents have only two options: pay private tuition or move.

That’s not much of a choice.

School choice creates incentives that bureaucracy can’t. When families can leave, schools have stronger reasons to improve. Charter schools, education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships, and vouchers all give parents leverage they otherwise lack.

None of this guarantees success. Eliminating the Department of Education won’t magically improve schools, and states are perfectly capable of making bad decisions. The real reform isn’t simply moving power from Washington to state capitals. It’s moving power to families. Critics raise a fair concern: poorer states and communities may struggle to fund education at the same level as wealthier ones.

But Washington hasn’t solved that problem either. Despite decades of federal involvement, achievement gaps remain stubbornly wide. More bureaucracy has not produced equal outcomes. A better approach is to expand opportunity. Wealthy families already exercise school choice by buying homes in better districts or paying private tuition. Friedman’s ideas and Trump’s policies extend that freedom to families with fewer resources.

The real question isn’t whether we’re “for” or “against” public education. It’s who education is supposed to serve. If a public school offers the best service, parents will choose it. If another institution better meets a child’s needs, parents should be free to choose that instead. Students should not be assigned to schools. Schools should compete for students.

For decades, Washington promised better results. The results are in. It’s time to trust the American parents."

Tennessee students make gains with tutoring and a back-to-basics approach that emphasizes phonics

See National Test Scores Are Dropping. This State Is Fighting Back by Chao Deng of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"As schools across the nation search for remedies, one of the most closely watched efforts is playing out in Tennessee. The state’s schools—once among the U.S.’s worst-performing—have made gains with intensive tutoring, mandatory summer school for struggling pupils and a back-to-basics approach that emphasizes phonics."

"From 2022 to 2025, Tennessee ranked second out of 38 states in math improvement and fourth out of 35 states in reading gains"

"The state’s most recent scores on a key national test placed it 17th out of 50 states and Washington, D.C."

"up from near the bottom in 2009"

"Much of the work has revolved around early literacy and carefully tracking schools’ and students’ progress."

"American schools have wrestled with learning loss for the better part of a decade and no one has found a panacea. Stalling of student progress in K-12 math and reading coincided with less emphasis on standardized tests and a rise in social-media use."

"Researchers believe the secret lies in the components of a state’s plan and how they are implemented. Mississippi, which began emphasizing phonics-based literacy instruction over a decade ago, has since made major academic strides, for example. Researchers say the key ingredients likely included investing in literacy coaches, holding schools and districts accountable, and holding back struggling students at the end of third grade."

"Tennessee policymakers required districts to adopt high-quality instructional materials and trained teachers on how to implement evidence-based reading in classrooms. A 2021 state law required third-graders scoring just below reading proficiency to show “adequate growth” at the end of summer camps to advance to fourth grade." 

When Schools Try to Cover Up Their Failures

Social promotion and efforts to ban standardized tests are ways of shielding adults from accountability

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"Among 13-year-olds in nearly every demographic group, test scores in math and reading were flat (since 2022). And most youngsters continue to lack proficiency in both subjects."

there is "pressure on teachers to pass students regardless of classroom performance or even attendance"

"The result is a school system full of children unable to perform academically at even the most basic level."

"many teachers said that they were discouraged or forbidden by their principals from flunking students, or that they have given out failing grades that were overridden. Others said failing students was permitted if justified, but the administrative burden to rationalize failure, even for students who did not show up to school, is onerous or impossible.”"

"An Education Department study in 2024 found that 1 in 4 young adults are functionally illiterate, even though more than half received high-school diplomas."

"many of today’s high-school grads function at or below a middle-school level of education. Eliminating standardized tests wouldn’t change that reality"

"it isn’t expensive to teach children reading and arithmetic, something that was done competently for many decades on budgets much smaller than what educators have at their disposal today." 

"empirical studies have shown that smaller class sizes have minimal effect on student learning. Countries that consistently outperform the U.S. on international tests, including Japan and South Korea, have larger classes on average. So do many high-performing charter schools."

"the best-performing students in the U.S. tend to be of South Asian and East Asian heritage. They are among the groups least likely to be taught by someone who looks like them." 

Requiring the SAT Test Boosts Student Success

After we started requiring entrance exams at Chapman University, graduation rates more than doubled

Letter to The WSJ. 

"I well understand the frustration of the University of California’s math and science professors who are urging that college-entrance exams be reinstated as an admission requirement (“California Professors Want Entrance Exams Back,” U.S. News, June 2).

When I became president of Chapman University in 1991, we didn’t require college-entrance exams. Many considered that a badge of honor. If, however, academic success is measured by a school’s ability to nurture its students through graduation, we were failing. Only 38% of the students who started as freshmen at Chapman graduated four to six years later. That compared to a 62% graduation rate for the top 10-ranked colleges in our U.S. News & World Report category.

The reason for our low graduation rate wasn’t hard to find. We found across a large sample of competing schools that the correlation between entrance-exam scores and graduation rates was more than double that for any other admission requirement, including high-school GPAs and class standing.

Those findings led us to require SAT/ACT entrance exams. We steadily increased the minimum admission score over the 25 years I served as president. That strategy worked: Our graduation rate more than doubled to 79% over that same period. Even more important, our faculty told me that raising the academic bar resulted in a more vibrant classroom experience and a richer campus life.

Jim Doti

Former president, Chapman University"

School Choice Benefits Low-Income Families

Vouchers and scholarships help children from cash-strapped families achieve the American dream

Letter to The WSJ. 

"Mr. Kelly argues that Arizona’s education savings accounts program forces trade-offs in state spending, even though he concedes that ESAs represent only 8% of the state’s education budget. He then criticizes the $50 billion price tag on the federal scholarship tax credit for education. The 2025 federal budget was $7 trillion, making the scholarship program less than 0.75% of federal spending. The idea that these scholarships will result in significant “lost revenue” is ridiculous.

Mr. Kelly laments that when students leave public schools in a choice system, public schools lose money. “Hold harmless” arrangements can blunt the blow of enrollment shifts, but even if such options didn’t exist, what would the senator propose we do? Shouldn’t funding vary with enrollment? Would he propose not increasing funding when enrollment rises? He can’t have it both ways.

Finally, Mr. Kelly links to a story in the Washington Post that associates vouchers with declining enrollments in Arizona. Recent projections from the National Center for Education Statistics predict declining student populations due to birth dearth, not school choice, as we see the largest losses projected in states like California that don’t have choice programs. Even if choice was driving declines in enrollment in public schools, that should be a wake-up call that public schools are only viable with a captive audience.

Michael Q. McShane

EdChoice" 

The Academy Rethinks the SAT

University of California faculty say that when tests were dropped, student learning fell

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"in . . . 2020 . . . the University of California . . . [decided to] drop standardized tests as an admissions requirement . . . The experiment has been a failure, as more than 750 professors in STEM disciplines . . . now admit"

"preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics"

"Test scores “add substantially to UC’s ability to predict student success” beyond high school grades, especially for minority groups, the faculty report said."

"the university “does not appear to use standardized test scores in a way that amplifies racial disparities.” Without test scores, admissions would hinge on inflated grades, extracurricular activities and essays."

"“for three consecutive years, 20-30% of UC Berkeley first-semester calculus students who participated in mathematical diagnostic testing displayed severe preparation deficits.”"

"current admissions standards cannot “reliably distinguish readiness for university-level STEM majors"

[they were] "admitting students to STEM programs “without a reliable measure of whether they are prepared to succeed."

"UC San Diego . . . found one in eight of the school’s freshmen had math skills below high-school level" 

That was "a 30-fold increase since 2020" 

Privilege Shapes Progressive Education Choice

Black Americans are far more supportive of school choice than affirmative action

Letter to The WSJ. 

"Jason Riley is right that Democrats and their teacher-union allies often claim to champion disadvantaged minority students while defending an education system that leaves those same students trapped in failing schools (“School Choice Is a Winning Issue for Republicans,” Upward Mobility, May 13).

But there is another political irony here. Black Americans are far more supportive of school choice than affirmative action. In YouGov’s 2024 Cooperative Election Study, about two-thirds of black Americans said that their state should provide “school voucher subsidies for families to send their children to private or charter schools.” Yet less than one-third of white Democrats supported expanding the kind of school choice favored by black voters.

Democrats talk constantly about white privilege, yet one of the clearest examples occurs inside their own coalition: white progressives defending a public-school monopoly less favored by minority families than by teachers’ unions. Apparently, some forms of privilege are more politically inconvenient than others.

Michael T. Hartney

Fellow, Hoover Institution" 

Does Providing Laptops Improve Educational Outcomes?

From Jeffrey Miron.

"The One Laptop Per Child program was supposed to bridge the digital divide for children in developing countries.

To assess the long-term effects of the program, one study performed

a large-scale randomized evaluation of the OLPC program implemented by the Peruvian government in rural primary schools, using administrative and survey data from 2007 to 2019.

The study found that the program had

no effects on students’ exam or test scores or on their likelihood of completing primary or secondary school or enrolling in a university… [T]he program [also] reduced the fraction of primary students who advanced to the next grade by 1 percentage point between 2009 and 2016.

Despite lengthy teacher trainings,

the program had no significant effects on teachers’ digital skills … [and it] led to limited academic use of laptops and generated few benefits beyond basic digital literacy, which partly explains the absence of effects on achievement and attainment."

‘The Well-Educated Child’ Review: Where Love Meets Learning

How did Harlem Village Academies improve student performance? The charter network’s founder lays out her philosophy of education

By Naomi Schaefer Riley. Riley reviewed the book The Well-Educated Child: How the Principles and Practices of Quality Thinking, Agency, and Ethical Purpose Cultivate Deeper Learning by Deborah Kenny. Excerpts:

"It is true that for the schools catering to wealthier families, assessments are the floor and not the ceiling. No one in Scarsdale is impressed when more than 90% of students pass the Regents exams or are marked “proficient” on statewide tests. The teachers don’t teach to the test, but students learn the material they need to know through the school’s curriculum. There are exceptions. Many wealthy schools embrace the “whole language” approach to reading, but the parents acted as a backstop, ensuring that their children learned how to read even if they didn’t learn it well in school. Unfortunately, children from less-wealthy and less-educated families don’t have that advantage, and so they often fall further behind."

"Similarly, Ms. Kenny is a fan of restorative justice. She doesn’t like systems of demerits where students behave well only because of extrinsic rewards. Though she assures readers that students do suffer consequences, including suspension, for infractions, the goal at HVA is for students to understand what they have done wrong and to make amends. Of course, the way restorative justice is practiced often lacks real consequences and, again, research suggests it has led to more dangerous schools and poorer academic results. Similarly, her belief that smaller class sizes and higher teacher pay will improve our schools has no basis in evidence. (The average teacher salary at Sidwell Friends, where the Obama children went to school, is about the same as that in the New York City public schools.)"

"But Eva Moskowitz, Success Academy’s founder, has the same goals for her students. The test scores are also the floor, not the ceiling. The 20,000 students at her schools read complete books. And they learn to appreciate art and music. In “A+ Parenting” (2023), Ms. Moskowitz recommends great works of literature as well as games and music and movies to help children “become enthusiastic learners.” In the past 20 years, though, HVA’s scores have fallen while Success Academy’s have not. While they are still outperforming many neighborhood schools, Harlem Village Academy East, for instance, only has a 52% proficiency rate in reading. Sorry, Ms. Kenny, this won’t fly in Scarsdale." 

Pennsylvania’s New Education Hope

Private donors help Philadelphia students, even as Gov. Josh Shapiro turns hostile to choice scholarships

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"Only a third of Philadelphia students were proficient in English, and a quarter in math, on state tests last year. That’s the horrifying return on school district spending of about $32,000 per student"

"District-staffing surged while enrollment dropped 12% from 2016 to 2025."

"More than 100,000 mostly lower-income children used the tax-credit scholarships in 2023-24, the most recent year with data available. But funding caps leave tens of thousands of students on waiting lists" (tax credits to businesses and individuals who donate to scholarship organizations) 

Virginia Is for Higher Taxes—and Gerrymanders

Gov. Spanberger’s popularity takes a hit as she abandons the center

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"Unlike in private industry, collective bargaining in government isn’t adversarial. Public unions sit on both sides of the table since they fund the campaigns of the politicians with whom they “negotiate.” The incentive is to give away the store to union allies"

"Wisconsin Republicans in 2011 ended this cycle by limiting government collective bargaining, which has saved taxpayers some $35.6 billion, according to the MacIver Institute. Studies have also found that the law improved student test scores, in part by allowing schools to pay teachers more for performance."  

Los Angeles Schools Can’t Do Math

Teachers get a rich new union contract despite awful student results

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

The contract "increases salary scales by 11.65% over two years—double the rate of inflation—plus four weeks of paid parental leave and expanded student support services that will invariably require more hiring. Pay for new teachers will jump nearly 12% to $77,000."

"state per-pupil spending has soared in recent years to $27,418"

They will "have a workforce that is larger than when the district had 40% more students than we have today"

"the district and state are required to make payments equal to 30% of teacher salaries for their pensions. Teachers can retire at age 63 with a pension worth 85% of their final pay, plus free health benefits for life."

"Only 18% of Los Angeles eighth-graders scored proficient in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared to 27% nationwide." 

Blue states spend 51.4% more money per public/government school student than red states, with no difference in academic outcomes

From Mark Perry.

"Wow, blue states spend 51.4% more money per public/government school student than red states, with no difference in academic outcomes.

Related: Mississippi (red state) is spending between $10-$13k per pupil and has gone from 49th in education to 9th in the nation in 13 years, and they did that by switching to a pre-1990s phonics reading curriculum."

  

Why Won’t Mamdani Take On Educational Redlining?

Neighborhood school zoning has its origins in the 1930s practice of residential discrimination.

By Derrell Bradford. Excerpts:

"In most places, students are arbitrarily assigned to a school on the basis of geography. This policy has its roots in “redlining”—the outlawed practice of keeping disfavored racial groups out of certain neighborhoods."

"In the 1930s, the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corp. issued color-coded maps identifying neighborhoods with high concentrations of minorities. People who lived there were denied access to mortgages. The Federal Homeowner’s Administration also declared that if children were “compelled to attend school where a majority or a considerable number of the pupils represent a far lower level of society or an incompatible racial element, the neighborhood in question will prove far less stable and desirable.”" 

"children are prevented from enrolling in better public schools—in some cases, schools closer to their homes—solely because of attendance zones. These better schools, typically majority white and Asian, have attendance zones that box out lower-income families." 

Access to federal student loans can reduce welfare for some young adults

See Optimism about Graduation and College Financial Aid by Emily G. Moschini, Gajendran Raveendranathan & Ming Xu.

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics

vol. 18, no. 2, April 2026

(pp. 148–87)

Abstract

"In the United States, college dropout risk is sizable. We provide new empirical evidence that beliefs about the likelihood of earning a bachelor's degree predict college enrollment, and that the distribution of these beliefs exhibits widespread optimism. We incorporate this distribution of beliefs into an overlapping generations model with college as a risky investment that can be financed via federal loans, grants, family transfers, or earnings. We then examine the welfare impact of access to federal student loans. We find that access can reduce welfare for young adults who are low-skilled, poor, and optimistic, due to their mistaken beliefs."  

 

Andy Beshear’s Hillbilly Education Elegy

The Kentucky Governor with his eye on the White House dissembles about a veto and about us

WSJ editorial. Excerpt:

"Bluegrass State children could use the help. Kentucky fourth- and eighth-grade scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress were lower in 2024 than in 2013—by 10 points in eighth-grade math and 12 points in eighth-grade reading. In Jefferson County (Louisville) public schools, only 30% of eighth-graders are proficient in reading and 28% in math on state tests.

Mr. Beshear says the Legislature is “quick to blame our public schools for test scores while refusing to give teachers a well-deserved raise,” citing a statistic that average teacher pay in Kentucky is 42nd in the nation. Average state teacher pay was around $58,500 in 2024, compared to median household income of $64,526.

But including benefits, total teacher compensation was an average $94,194, about 10.5% higher adjusted for inflation than in 2006, according to a Bluegrass Institute analysis last year. Meanwhile, total per-pupil funding increased by an inflation-adjusted 40.5% from 2006 to 2023, the institute found."

Contrary to Allegations, the Data Show Little Fraud in Arizona School Choice Program

Education freedom is under attack, including baseless accusations.

By J.D. Tuccille of Reason. 

"Arizona's Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has long waged war against the state's school choice programs, reserving particular venom for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA), which allow much per-pupil education funding to follow students to their preferred schooling. She's been assisted in her crusade by some media outlets which have amplified inaccurate stories about ESAs. But the ESA program remains not just wildly popular but, according to researchers, also well-managed.

Is a Popular Program Rife With Fraud?

"About 2.0% of dollars spent by ESA account holders is for items that are unallowable under program rules," the Arizona Department of Education announced earlier this month in response to allegations of widespread fraud. "In addition, actual fraud or egregious purchases are at 0.3%, according to the same study."

There's a story behind that announcement, as you might expect. It's the tale of a fight over a very popular school choice program that's despised by a few politicians and their supporters.

As of this week, 102,598 Arizona students use ESAs to pay private school tuition, for curriculum, home education, tutoring, and other education expenses. Instead of being locked to specific brick-and-mortar buildings, 90 percent of per-pupil funding is deposited in accounts to be used for permitted expenses by families that want something other than traditional public schooling. ESAs are powerful tools for freeing families from one-size-fits-some schooling, but that liberating power offends proponents of traditional institutions, among them the governor.

A State Program Attacked by State Officials

"While other government entitlements have strict requirements and oversight, the ESA program continues to operate unchecked, squandering taxpayer dollars with no accountability," Gov. Hobbs charged in her State of the State address in January. "It seems like every day, we learn about new shopping sprees happening at the expense of taxpayers…diamond jewelry, high-end clothing and furniture…who knows what taxpayers will be footing the bill for tomorrow?"

Sure enough, on March 4, the Arizona Republic's Alexandra Hardle claimed that "audit data shows over 20% of vendor purchases made with Empowerment Scholarship Account dollars could be barred under the program's guidelines." She added that "records released by the Arizona Attorney General's Office show Arizonans have spent millions of dollars on expenses that appear to fall afoul of the program's guidelines."

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, it should be noted, is another Democrat who has waged a continuous battle against ESAs and against Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, a Republican, who administers the school choice program. Two years ago, she tried to bury ESA families in requirements for documentation of even minor purchases. She and Hobbs insist all education spending not controlled by government bureaucrats is suspicious, and they're determined to convince the public of that claim by any means necessary.

The ESA Program 'Withstands More Scrutiny Than Many Public Programs'

The Department of Education rebutted the fraud claims, referring to a recent study it commissioned.

Per the department, "the 20% figure represented program participants that ADE [Arizona Department of Education] had selected for risk-based auditing." That is, of expenditures flagged as questionable and put aside for scrutiny, one in five were then found to be disallowed. Across the whole program, the real figure for disallowed expenses, ADE insisted, is the 2 percent mentioned above—and it's mostly unintentional.

"Most are innocent mistakes, such as an error in a form that must be resubmitted, or educational items that are not on the allowable list but that the user could have in good faith believed were permitted. Some examples would be backpacks, lunch boxes and water bottles," ADE added. Horne and company say the figure for intentional fraud is 0.3 percent.

EdChoice, an independent organization that supports education reform, sought to settle the dispute and asked for documentation of ESA participants' educational expenses.

"We were granted access to data on all ESA transactions for the school year 2024-25 (the year prior to the one ADE studied)," according to EdChoice's Susan Pendergrass and John Kristof. "After our review, the ADE's numbers seem plausible. Not only that, but unallowable expenses seem to be almost entirely concentrated in one source, which should make improvements simpler."

To the extent that there's a problem, write Pendergass and Kristof, "essentially all the potentially controversial purchases are found in Amazon transactions" made as education expenses. "Even if every Amazon transaction was eyebrow-raising, we would only be questioning around 7% of the total spend on the program. And not every Amazon transaction was eyebrow-raising." They put the total for questionable expenses at 1 to 2 percent—essentially the same as the ADE study.

"Based on our preliminary research and the Arizona Department of Education's study, the ESA withstands more scrutiny than many public programs," the EdChoice analysts conclude.

It's All Part of the Policy Battle Over School Choice

Now, that's a lot of wading into the auditing weeds for a school choice—or any—program. But Arizona's governor and attorney general can't eliminate ESAs on their own. School choice supporters control the state legislature and aren't about to abolish the program. ESAs currently enjoy 66 percent support among Arizona adults and 75 percent support among parents of school-age children, according to polls.

That means the only way for Hobbs, Mayes, and their friends to kill the ESA program and damage school choice overall in the state is to erode support for portable education funding. They have to convince Arizonans that the program is hopelessly corrupt—even though there's little evidence to support that claim. Only by turning the public against ESAs can they corral some escaped students back into government schools. And their side is desperate as the tide of public opinion turns against them.

"To date, 18 states have programs on the books that make virtually all their students eligible for state funding to use on private school tuition or home-school expenses," EducationWeek's Matthew Stone and Caitlynn Peetz Stephens noted in January. "And every one of those states made their programs universal within the past four years."

Arizona and Florida have been pathfinders in the shift toward education freedom. Opponents of school choice, including Arizona's governor and attorney general, hope that reversing course in a pioneering state can move the whole country back in their direction. Their efforts deserve to fail."

California’s Never-Ending Race Preferences

Again activists attempt to gut the Golden State’s ban on affirmative action

By William McGurn. Excerpts:

"California’s constitutional battle is rooted in an amendment, Proposition 209, which the state’s voters approved in 1996. Proposition 209 forbids discrimination against or preferential treatment for anyone “on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin” in “public employment, public education, or public contracting.” That’s clear enough, which is why activists are always trying to gut it."

"The 2023 version of ACA 7 would have allowed the state to fund programs for specific groups “if those programs are established or otherwise implemented by the State for purposes of increasing the life expectancy of, improving educational outcomes for, or lifting out of poverty specific groups based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, or marginalized genders, sexes, or sexual orientations.” But Fair Admissions made clear that such measures would be unconstitutional."

"So the new ACA 7 involves a change in scope. It would modify Proposition 209 by narrowing the ban on discrimination in “public education” to cover only “higher education admissions and enrollment.” That would open the door to racial considerations in K-12 education and in college and university financial aid."

"“an African American student would be given grants, while a student of any other race would be saddled with student loans, despite having equal (or even greater) financial need.”"

"result of a more generous financial-aid package going to a wealthy black student than to a poor Asian student."