Grand Canyon Times

Heritage Foundation education researcher Jason Bedrick said the public district school system is “racially segregated” in a response to the head of Arizona Save our Schools (SOS), who said that school "vouchers are segregation coupons."

“Even nearly 70 years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, there are few institutions in America more racially segregated than the district school system,” Bedrick told the Grand Canyon Times. “Contra Beth Lewis, seven out of eight studies on the effects of private school choice policies on racial diversity found that choice policies improve racial integration.”

“One study found no discernable effect,” said Bedrick, who shared a link to the list of studies. 

X Post by AZ SOS Director Beth Lewis | X, formerly Twitter

A Phoenix-area resident, Bedrick is a research fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

He was responding to Beth Lewis, director of Arizona SOS, who posted on X that, “Vouchers are segregation coupons that exist to fuel white flight.”  

Lewis’ group lists among its 2023 public policy priorities a “rollback” of the universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program in Arizona.

“With the ESA program, the money that would pay for that student’s education in a neighborhood school follows that student to whichever school the parents choose for their child, including education at home,” according to  the Arizona Department of Education. “ESA dollars cover multiple education expenses such as private school tuition, curricula, educational supplies, tutoring and more.” 

The department announced today that 70,173 national Arizona students "benefit from an ESA." 

In 2011, Arizona became the first state to create an ESA program. It later expanded that to a universal program through a law signed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey in July 2022.

ESAs were essentially declared constitutional by the Arizona Supreme Court in 2014, when it deemed those challenging the program were unable to show harm.

In April 2023, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R) expressed his support for the ESA program on an interview on the “Students Over Systems” podcast, reported the Grand Canyon Times. 

“Competition’s good for everyone,” said Horne. “If a school is complaining that the fact that they have competition from a private school means that a student may leave, the solution to that is for them to do a better job academically, get better results academically, so the parent will want to keep the student there.”

In February 2023, Gov. Katie Hobbs' (D-Ariz.) proposed budget included repeal of the ESA program. In May 2023, however, Hobbs signed a budget that did not include that repeal.