SuchandSuch

@KTAR923 They're both terrible. DECLINE TO SIGN all ESA ballot initiatives!

A second ESA-related ballot initiative has been submitted to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, aiming to get accountability in front of voters in November but without an income cap for voucher users. Brian Jodice with the American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy group, told KTAR News the new initiative was submitted to combat the union-backed proposal, which he said aims to “gut” the ESA program. Read more from @shiratanzernews here: ktar.com/arizona-educat…

Something is happening in education that most people have not noticed yet, and I believe it is worth understanding, even if you never change a single thing about your child’s schooling. To understand what is happening, it helps to know what came before. In 1920, there were about 200,000 school districts in the United States. For most Americans, the one-room schoolhouse was a reality. Districts were small, local, and responsive to parents. By 1970, due to the school consolidation movement, that number had fallen to about 20,000. Today, there are public high schools with 2,000, 3,000, or even 5,000 students. They are monstrosities. New York City schools spend approximately $40,000 per pupil each year. The results are mediocre at best and catastrophic at worst. For the first time in American history, that monopoly is beginning to crack. Educational Scholarship Accounts now allow families in multiple states to use public funds for private education, tutoring, homeschool materials, and other educational services of their choice. If you had a ten-student microschool and could access that money directly, you would have $400,000 a year to educate ten students. The resources exist. They always have. They were simply locked inside a system that could not use them well. At the same time, the homeschool and microschool movement has grown tremendously. These are not isolated families doing worksheets at the kitchen table. They are organized communities of parents, often led by mothers and former teachers, who saw their children struggling and decided to build something better. Learning pods allow families to share the teaching load. I know families in which each mother watches the children one day a week, and the kids rotate among homes. Microschools bring eight to fifteen students together with a skilled guide. The models vary, but the underlying principle is the same: small groups, meaningful relationships, and genuine learning. What has not changed, and what technology cannot replace, is the human element. A child needs adults who know them, who take their thinking seriously, and who create an environment where they feel safe enough to take intellectual risks. A child needs peers who share their curiosity and hold them to a higher standard. A child needs to feel that what they are doing matters, that their education is not merely preparation for some future life, but a meaningful part of their life right now. This is where I have spent thirty-five years: building environments in which the human element is the foundation and everything else serves it. Small seminars where every student speaks every day. Mentorship relationships develop over the years. A culture built around genuine intellectual engagement rather than compliance or credentialing. I am sharing this because I believe we are at an inflection point. The families who understand what is happening and act on it in the next few years will give their children an extraordinary advantage. Not an advantage measured merely in test scores or college acceptance letters, though those often follow, but one measured in how their children think, how they relate to others, and how they approach the world. Putting more money into the system will not change it, because the problem is structural, not financial. Every meaningful change in education has come from families and educators who chose to build something new outside the existing structure. That movement is now larger and better funded than it has ever been. If you are curious about what this looks like in practice, or if you simply want to talk about your child’s situation, reply to this email. I have been at this for thirty-five years, and I still find every family’s story worth hearing.

Homeschooled kids score 15-30 percentile points higher on standardized tests than their public school peers, and the gap widens every year administrators ignore it. The National Home Education Research Institute tracked 11,739 students and found homeschoolers outperform on literally every academic metric while spending roughly $600 per child annually (compared to the national public school average of $15,240).

Why this matters? School Choice opponents published a fake news report stating that fraud was 20%! Now we know there were simple mistakes—not fraud—for a few families new to the program.

Anyone can homeschool, including parents of autistic children. I know many parents in real life who demonstrate this every day. There is hope and there is help!

@CraigHarrisNews @12News Peoria Unified School District - NAU ticket office, the Puppet Theater, and renting out Harkins movie theaters.

Arizona school voucher funds used for Broadway show tickets, concerts and trips, records obtained by @12News show. As public schools are closing and educators are losing jobs, a few ESA families spent nearly $1,000 each on tickets. 12news.com/mobile/article…

100,000 students currently benefit from Arizona Empowerment Accounts. Those students, their families, and all AZ taxpayers deserve the truth from the media. 12News, Craig Harris, Joe Dana, and their “expert” got this wrong. Retract the misstatements and set the record straight.

@12News botches MORE anti-ESA claims: teams up with ‘Princeton’ fact checker to make false statements against @azedschools' study showing ESA program has minimal misspending. @craigharrisnews & @joedanareports, will you retract your misstatements and clarify to your audiences that you relied on erroneous analysis? No more excuses, no more misleading the public.

@VoteRIGHTinAZ No one operating a monopoly wants to have competition.

They hate ESA’s because it’s a danger to the system. The system they control. ESAs make a pathway to disrupt that control and put it back in the hands of parents and non-woke educators.

@AzSvor What do you mean, I'm not? I don't receive a salary to home educate with ESA.

@SuchSuchand Lmao no you aren’t

Maybe ESA parents need their own ballot initiative. Anything purchased by a public school should be an allowable purchase for ESA students.

@azesamemes Because the schools are not equipped to adequately meet the needs of many SPED students. That's why the ESA program is so vital for Arizona - 20K students with a disability need this program and need it to have great flexibility.

@SuchSuchand That's a possibility, but with $900K, that's a LOT of students being placed into private schools.

Hmmm. . .so why is Peoria USD giving nearly a million dollars of "public funds" to private schools this year? "VOUCHER reports"? So it's fine when THEY have vouchers? Hmmm. . .

If you added up the dollars public schools spend on trips and activities to "reward" students after annual state tests are done, without even the pretense of any academic benefit, you could fund ESAs until the sun goes out.

Education Freedom and ESAs in Arizona- These are America First policies that benefit every Arizonan and we have the gold standard.🪙 In 2024, the ADOE released its revised budget and reported the ESA program was $4 million under budget. Instead, opponents of school choice continue to make misleading claims that 20% of spending on ESAs involves unallowable or fraudulent purchases. In reality, a new ADOE study shows unallowable spending amounting to only 1.9% of total spending. And get this-only .3% deemed fraudulent. Read for yourself🔽 azed.gov/communications… @A1Policy @azfec @JasonBedrick @matthewladner @ClarkRimsza @DeAngelisCorey @PamKirby @azesamemes @MommyLobbyAZ @Boggs4MCSchools @SteveMontenegro @votewarren #DeclineToSign

We already know the results of these approaches to education. Spoiler alert, they aren’t great. Parents and kids deserve the right to a new and different approach. Shackling innovative programs with existing constraints is not the move.

Here are some tricks to buy yourself some time. Five numbered bins of toys, books and busy bags. They get one bin per day only while you're working with the 5yo. Keep the bins put away, and rotate through them so they only see these items once per week. Pinterest has great ideas for busy bags. Use snack time to your advantage. Everyone can sit at the table and little mouths are busy eating and more quiet.

My biggest problem with homeschooling at the moment is trying to do lessons with my 5yo without the 3 and 2yo interrupting and completely ruining it. Sigh.

@Tjhawk07 @azesamemes @CraigHarrisNews @DeAngelisCorey Someone should do an FOIA on all of the ODP orders. They all just say 'Blanket PO for supplies'

@azesamemes @CraigHarrisNews @DeAngelisCorey Could you imagine what we would find in the other districts if they were transparent and provided line-by-line. I think it’s time our legislators refine the laws for accountability in the public schools transparency. No entity can enforce, you’re forced to sue them.

Since @CraigHarrisNews won’t do line-by-line on public schools, I had to. Deer Valley USD hides their line-by-line spending like it’s classified. I dug into our peers to see the real hypocrisy. Let’s see some real scrutiny on admin discretion with our money. Thread incoming….

@1ReformAlliance Until @SchoolChoiceNow comes in with ballot propositions trying to eliminate all choice from a thriving program.

School choice fuels competition & innovation in education, creating more opportunities for ALL students! It is a powerful tool for students to access the education they deserve! #SchoolChoice #Innovation #ServingStudents

We're already doing it for free and for 90% of public cost. We don't get a salary, transportation or free lunches. You want to add those in, along with retirement, health benefits, utilities, facilities, admin staff, and all of the extra federal funding, grants, bonds, etc ? If yes, let's talk! We can work on another ballot prop 😂

@SuchSuchand Sure! Then ESA parents also have to home school anyone in their neighborhood who asks. And ESA parents have to administer the same standardized tests to measure success

@seymoretruths Do they have a plan for when it fails before the 30 years? Because 65+ mph winds and other weather will likely shorten that estimated life span significantly.

open.substack.com/pub/ncelection… open.substack.com/pub/ncelection…