The Arizona Legislature on April 6 passed and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed an expansion of the Empowerment Scholarship Account program. The expansion allows 5,500 more students each year access to the program with a maximum 30,000 participating students by 2022.
The following statements from education policy experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact New Media Specialist Billy Aouste at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 847/877-9100.
“Education should be about stoking the passions of students to learn instead of about what building students attend. Arizona understands this and continues to lead the nation in providing children access to an education that stokes this passion by expanding the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. Every state should follow Arizona in allowing students to find the education they need to excel.”
Lennie Jarratt
Project Manager, Education
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“It is a big day for the education choice movement, and this expansion of the Empowerment Scholarship Account program will keep Arizona at its forefront and will give all Arizona families a greater opportunity to meet the unique education needs of their children. When parents are given the opportunity to choose, every school must compete and improve, so even the children who are not taking part in the program will reap its benefits. I hope Arizona’s example will provide the necessary motivation for legislators in other states contemplating their own education choice bills to do what is right for their state’s children. “
Tim Benson
Policy Analyst
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
The Heartland Institute is a 33-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
Lennie Jarratt is the former director of the Center for Education Opportunities at The Heartland Institute
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
