November 3, 2018

On Election Day, voters in 37 states will decide on 157 statewide ballot measures, directly deciding new policies on issues ranging from voter identification requirements to term limits, marijuana legalization to minimum wage increases. But of all those states and all those ballot measures, one state’s voters will be asked to decide the future of school choice: Arizona.

Arizona’s Proposition 305 would allow all students throughout the state to have and use an Empowerment Savings Account, which gives parents the power to create a custom education that works for their child. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey recently endorsed the measure, saying, “Prop 305 is fiscally responsible, improves accountability and transparency, prioritizes low-income students and families and does not raise taxes. When parents have options, kids win.”

Parents strongly support Proposition 305, too. Arizona mom Jenny Clark is voting “YES” on Prop 305 because she believes that all students should have the ability to be educated in a way that gives them the best chance to succeed. Two of Jenny’s sons have dyslexia, and their school district did not offer any programs to help students like them. But thanks to ESAs, they now have access to the tutoring, therapy, and curriculum they need to have a rewarding educational experience that satisfies their unique needs.

The Goldwater Institute also supports Proposition 305, and you can read more about the measure here.

Ronald Reagan, Free Minds, and Free Speech on Campus

“The issue that we’re fighting about here is really the issue of free minds,” Goldwater Institute Senior Fellow Jim Manley remarked in discussing campus free speech on Pacific Research Institute’s “Next Round” podcast.

“[Ronald] Reagan said it best,” Manley continued. “‘Do we have the ability, the dignity, and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny?’—and that’s what this is about. Do students have the ability to decide for themselves truth from fiction? Or do they need their administrators and their professors to be their censors and decide for them what speech is off-limits or what ideas they shouldn’t consider?”

The answer seems obvious; however, the state of campus free speech isn’t exactly healthy. Read more about the solution.

Arizona Voters Should Reject Big Green Tax on Poor

A recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that California, which has already moved to a 50 percent green energy mandate, charges businesses and families 67 percent more for electricity than cheaper states like Arizona. Thanks in part to its stringent renewable mandate, the WSJ reports, “California electricity rates have surged 30 percent since 2011 compared to an 8 percent increase nationwide.”

Florida, by contrast, which uses natural gas, solar energy, clean coal, and nuclear power and doesn’t have a clean energy mandate, has seen its utility costs fall by 3 percent over this same period. Does Arizona want to be like high-cost California or low-cost Florida? Find out why Arizona voters should say “NO” to Proposition 127.