Grand Canyon Times

PHOENIX – State schools chief Tom Horne has responded to criticism from Save Our Schools (SOS) regarding the ability of parents to choose the school that best meets their children’s academic needs.

Horne stated, “Statewide approximately 75,000 students are in the ESA program compared to 1,250,000 in public schools. ESAs are not a threat to public schools, but the competition they provide causes public schools to perform better as opposed to being a government monopoly which SOS prefers.”

He further elaborated with an example: “We have families that have three children. The needs of two of the children are met at the neighborhood school, but the needs of one of the children are not being met. The parents now have the ability to choose another school that meets that student’s academic needs. No one could rationally be against that unless they are so immersed in ideology like SOS is and it has made them coldhearted with respect to students’ academic needs.”

Addressing concerns about funding, Horne noted, “SOS pointed to Phoenix Union losing funds because of ESAs. Any time they lose students, they also lose the cost of educating the student, so their resulting funding per student in their district remains constant. In the case of ESA students, only 40 students left Phoenix Union schools for that reason during the last school year. The 1,137 cited in the department’s Quarterly Report are children who live within Phoenix Union boundaries but have either never attended a Phoenix Union school or had not in recent years.”

Horne continued by emphasizing parental choice: “If there are students in private or charter schools who would otherwise be attending Phoenix Union, it is because the parents concluded that Phoenix Union was not meeting the child’s academic needs. This is even more so in the case of Phoenix Union for not providing the safety that parents want for their children.”

Concluding his remarks, Horne said, “Historically, some Phoenix Union board members have been so immersed in ideology that they neglected the academic and safety needs of students and staff. A few years ago when unruly students invaded a Phoenix Union School board meeting demanding that the school eliminate School Resource Officers (police officers there to protect the safety of students and staff), the school board surrendered and eliminated those officers. That was irresponsible and undoubtedly affected some parents’ choices. However, the trend has been positive in that Phoenix Union now does have SROs.”