Grand Canyon Times

A national school choice advocate said Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.) is a "hypocrite" for her opposition to Arizona's school choice program.

“She went to Catholic school herself," Corey DeAngelis, author of “The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools” told the Grand Canyon Times. "I don't blame her for that either."

"But she is a hypocrite politician and I call them out,” he said.

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.

“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,” says the Arizona Department of Education website. “ESA dollars cover multiple education expenses such as private school tuition, curricula, educational supplies, tutoring and more.” 

The department reported that 75,130 Arizona students had received an ESA as of June 10, 2024.

Hobbs has opposed the ESA program since she took office with her very first proposed budget, in 2023, including a repeal of the ESA program. 

She has since made statements disparaging of the program.

DeAngelis said Arizona is one of eleven states that have adopted universal school choice measures, allowing families to redirect taxpayer-funded education dollars to a variety of educational options. Louisiana recently passed the measure, which will make it the twelfth state once the governor signs it into law.

“It is hard to overstate how much winning we've been doing on the issue,” said DeAngelis, who is also a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children. “It's partially because parents have kind of banded together as an interest group of their own, more of a general interest than a special interest, because they're fighting for their own kids, but they've held politicians accountable.” 

In Arizona, he said, "the government website in Arizona actually crashed because so many families flooded the applications immediately to get a better opportunity for their kids."

“Before 2021, there were zero states with universal school choice," said DeAngelis. "So in the past three years alone, we've had more momentum on the school choice front than in the preceding three decades."

His book delves into the role of political dynamics in shaping education policy, with the author asserting that the influence of teachers unions, which overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates, has hindered bi-partisan efforts for educational reform. 

“According to Open Secrets, 99.97% of the campaign contributions from ATF went to Democrats in 2022. And it's been like that for decades. It's a money laundering operation, and then it ought to be illegal,” he said. 

DeAngelis is currently on a book tour promoting “The Parent Revolution.” It was published on May 14, 2024 by Center Street.

"School choice is the only way forward through freedom rather than force," said DeAngelis. "The main problem is that we force millions of kids to go to schools just based on where they live and forced them into a one size fits all system that by definition is never going to meet various needs of families who simply disagree about how they want to raise their kids."