Arizona schools are failing our children, along with failing the parents and failing society. The government schools even fail many of the teachers.

According to the Arizona State Results - School district spending analysis, https://sdspending.azauditor.gov/State, the 2024 statewide testing assessments show that only 28% of students are proficient in science, only 32% of students are proficient in math, and only 40% of students are proficient in English Language Arts. The balance of the students are not reaching the minimum standards for passing the respective subject.

These respective percentages are all inferior to the already abysmal 2019 statewide testing assessments, which show only 51% of students are proficient in science (down 23% by 2024), only 42% of students are proficient in Math (down 10% by 2024), and only 42% are proficient in English Language Arts (down 2% by 2024).

The knee jerk solution is always to provide more taxpayer money, now at approximately $15,000 per student. Unfortunately for the students and the taxpayers, the more money government schools receive, the poorer they perform.

Irrespective the amount spent on education, we are denying many Arizona children the ability to achieve their full potential as adults. This will result in increased hardships throughout their respective adult lives.

Additionally, Arizona will find it increasingly difficult to attract new businesses and industries if we do not have an educated work force that is able to support new employment requirements.

One of the solutions to failing schools is increased school choice competition in the form of charter schools, faith-based schools, vocational schools along with micro schools, online schools, and home-schooling, all in conjunction with Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA).

The ESA program, school choice, should provide about $7,000 in funding per student, about half the cost of sending a student to a failing government school. Unfortunately, Governor Hobbs, Attorney General Mayes, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Horne, are making it increasingly difficult for the legislatively allocated funding to follow the child, as it must.

Your local school district, in addition to copious funding from the state budget, also receives most of the money collected from your annual property tax. When a child leaves a government school to receive education, the respective school district continues to receive the money from your property tax, even though the student is no longer enrolled in a district school.

I propose that property tax funding, like all education funding, should follow the child, not the school district.

Currently, about 10% of Arizona children participate in the ESA program, and the percentage is growing. This movement may motivate the government schools to either improve education or lose so many students that some failing schools will close due to lack of enrollment. The ideal scenario is that all methods of education serve the children properly. The end goal is to educate all Arizona students well.

It is predicted that by 2030, only 4 years away, 30% of Arizona’s students will be participating in the ESA program.  Financially, this will be a benefit to the Arizona taxpayer, and educationally, this will be a benefit to those students in the program; however, it does not address the educational needs of the students who will remain in the government schools. Their situation must also be addressed. They too, must receive a quality education.
 
If we look at a program that is often referred to as the “Mississippi Maricle” we will see that Mississippi previously ranked at the bottom of national education scale rise dramatically from 49th place in 2013 to 21st place for fourth grade reading in 2023. This transformation has garnered national attention as a model for educational reform.
 
The "Mississippi Miracle" refers to the significant improvements in student literacy and educational outcomes in Mississippi, primarily driven by the Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA) and evidence-based reforms that utilize sound public policy to improve outcomes for its youngest students.

LBPA funded the state department of education to hire, train and deploy literacy coaches to the 50 lowest-performing schools. It also required schools to administer universal screenings to identify students with reading deficiencies early and to communicate those results to parents, and it required schools to hold back students who were not reaching a certain threshold by third grade.

Some are uneasy regarding third grade retention; however, studies have shown that early identification of students with potential issues and the communication of the situation to the respective parents, has shown that the parents will become more involved in their child’s education, resulting in fewer retentions along with reading improvements with siblings within the same household.

I propose that Arizona investigates Mississippi’s LBPA and implement ideas that may be suitable to our situation.

Further, I propose that excelling teachers receive a merit-based bonus for their positive achievements.   

Another education issue is that the teachers’ unions are all about mediocrity and are not interested in performance. The proof is that an exceptional teacher makes the same salary as an inferior teacher. Remember, teacher’s unions represent the teachers, not the students. These same unions contribute approximately 98% of their activism funding to Democrats and leftist organizations.

Additionally, increased ESA competition will benefit the teachers as well. They will be able to work in the environment that best suits their individual talents. With additional outlets for their respective skills, the possibility for increased pay and schedule flexibility may be realized, particularly as tutors.

Lastly, let's make children innocent again. Many government schools indoctrinate, not educate. We must not subject children to DEI and wokeness along with delusional transgender nonsense and sexuality.