Arizona voters are asking lawmakers to lead on Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs), and their voices just got louder.
The state’s ESA program—which allows families to use a portion of the state dollars allotted for their children to pay for private tuition, tutors, and other teaching tools—has transformed thousands of lives both before and during the pandemic. For years, the testimonies of parents have been nothing short of remarkable:
As one mother put it this past year to members of the State Board of Education, “ESA saved my son from a path that would have compromised him on a systemic level…”
From another mom: “I am a parent of three children on ESA, but I also have a master’s degree in elementary education, and ESA has saved the educational lives of my three children…. We have tried public, private, and charter schools… [and] my child was able to meet some of her IEP [Individualized Education Program] goals in four months that no school had helped her to achieve in four years.”
And from a mother in rural Arizona: “I want all to know that this ESA option to educate my children truly saved my family; my oldest has significant disabilities and she attended our public school through her ninth grade year… So many years were spent advocating and begging and pleading for her to be educated, and more importantly, even wanted… ESA has opened up our world to educational opportunities never to be found in the public school setting…”
Now, Arizona lawmakers are on the cusp of extending this same opportunity to thousands more children via SB 1452, which would provide ESA eligibility to low-income and veteran families.
Right now, only special needs students and select other groups, such as children whose parents are on active duty or were killed in the line of service, are eligible to participate in the program. But as Gaby Friedman of the Torah Day School testified to lawmakers in March 2021, the impact of ESAs on kids at her school has shown the need to give the same opportunity to even more families:
“Maya (not her real name) is six, comes from a low-income family, and is disabled…Maya is eligible for the ESA because she is a special needs disabled student…What I thought her story shows is that an ESA works for an individual child…Maya is not the only one with unique needs. There’s many parents out there… and their children aren’t getting the education that they want. Those children might be not disabled…but they need more than what they’re getting. And that’s why this bill is so important.”
Arizona voters increasingly agree.
Multiple recent polls have found overwhelming bipartisan support across Arizona for increasing access to ESAs. Now, a new Goldwater Institute poll has again found massive support among both rural and metropolitan regions of the state. The poll, which was conducted in March and April 2021 across three separate legislative districts (LD4, LD13, and LD25), found that over two-thirds of all respondents, including 70% of Democrats, 67% of Independents, and 71% of Republicans, voiced support for extending program eligibility to all low-income students in Arizona. In contrast, out of the overall sample (N=641), just 21% of voters opposed increasing ESA eligibility.
Conducted March 29– April 6, 2021. N=641. Margin of error <6%. Results above exclude respondents who identified their political affiliation as “Other.”
Union organizers and district superintendents may have the bigger megaphone and messaging apparatus, but our education system ultimately exists to serve Arizona students and their families. Especially in the wake of COVID-19 and the academic disruption unleashed by public school shutdowns over the past year, that truth seems increasingly clear to voters. May it be equally clear to Arizona’s policymakers.
This article was published by the in defense of liberty blog on April 14, 2021, and is reproduced with permission from the Goldwater Institute
On March 25 Health Canada issued a memo regarding the safety of face masks that contain graphene or bio-based graphene.
Graphene is exfoliated graphite to a very small layer of nanoscopically thin flakes of hexagonally-arranged carbon atoms
Bio-based graphene is derived from biowaste.
Production of Carbon Nanotubes out of graphene are very similar to asbestos fibers and the inhalation of graphene nanotubes is detrimental to a person’s health.
The memo sent by Health Canada to Canadian Provincial and Territorial Ministries of Health read, in part :
“Health Canada has conducted a preliminary risk assessment which identified a potential for early pulmonary toxicity associated with the inhalation of nanoform graphene. To date, Health Canada has not received data to support the safety and efficacy of face masks containing nanoform graphene.” They went on to say, “As such, and in the absence of manufacturer’s evidence to support the safe and effective use of nanoform graphene coated masks, Health Canada considers the risk of these medical devices to be unacceptable.”
More on graphene:
A sheet of graphene of one atom in thickness is rolled into a tube. This creates a single-walled carbon nanotube. Layers of these graphene sheets can be rolled in order to create multi-walled carbon nanotubes, which have slightly different properties.
Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are considered harmful and may cause a serious cancer called Malignant Mesothelioma.
You may remember that Malignant Mesothelioma is usually caused by asbestos. I unfortunately know this quite well, because it was this terrible and mean cancer that killed my mother in 2002.
A study titled, “Mesothelioma: Identical Routes to Malignancy from Asbestos and Carbon Nanotubes” published in Nov 2019 says in its abstract:
“Exposure of laboratory mice to carbon nanotubes mimics exposure to asbestos, from initial and chronic inflammation, through loss of the same tumour-suppressor pathways and eventual sporadic development of malignant mesothelioma. Fibres of a similar nature may pose significant health risks to humans.”
I would like to repeat the warning from Health Canada once again –
“As such, and in the absence of manufacturer’s evidence to support the safe and effective use of nanoform graphene coated masks, Health Canada considers the risk of these medical devices to be unacceptable.”
Let us re-evaluate where we have arrived as a society, where we force medical measures on the masses in the name of fear. Any medical action, from one as simple as donning a mask to one so invasive as forcing an experimental, non-FDA approved substance such as the mRNA vaccine, must never be compulsory. The human body is sovereign, and not one person has the right to force a medical action on another, especially when risk is involved.
Most importantly, we are forcing school children to breathe through these masks, at school and during exercise, without addressing the issue of graphene and its potential dangers. Those who cannot wear a mask are still being forced in the school system. Parents should be the decision-makers when it comes to their child’s health.
Therefore, I am calling on the Governor to address this shocking development regarding graphene-coated masks. I implore him to immediately rescind Executive order 2021-04 that requires school children in public and charter schools to wear them, without exemption. I am emphatically calling on Doug Ducey to immediately begin an education campaign regarding the potential dangers of these masks, and to respect parent’s rights to make this decision for their child.
A group of enthusiastic parents, kids, and politicos rallied in front of the Arizona State Capitol on Monday to send a message to Governor Doug Ducey: #Letthechildrenbreathe. The rally, organized by Arizona Stands United, was part of a campaign to eliminate mandatory masks in K-12 schools.
Approximately 100 maskless and smiling attendees listened as young person after young person explained the difficulties of wearing masks in the classrooms.
The rally preceded the delivery of over 10,000 signatures in support of their cause to the Governor’s Office.
Organizers hope the governor will rescind Executive Order 2020.51 which requires masks to be worn by students in traditional and charter public schools.
Jenny Jackson, president of Arizona Stands United, says the group was first made aware of the difficulties kids were experiencing by a member of the group’s Education Committee. The group agreed to take on the cause as part of its commitment to end the current state-of-emergency and what they call “COVID tyranny.”
The “COVID tyranny” has even caused small children to wear masks while participating in P.E. outdoors.
Chloe, a fourth grader, said “Wearing masks makes it hard to breath. I have friends who have asthma and I get scared when they run and start having trouble breathing. I’d feel better if we didn’t have to wear them.”
Parents report children coming home exhausted due to what they believe is a lack of oxygen due to mask wearing.
Jackson says it is unfair that adults have a choice to wear a mask now or not, but kids are given no choice in the matter. It makes it especially egregious, say supporters because there is ample evidence to show that COVID is little threat to otherwise healthy children, they are no longer considered super spreaders, and at this point, most classroom teachers have been vaccinated against the disease.
While the wearing of masks has become a norm across the world as we strive to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the debate over their efficacy continues. Parents and teachers, who doubt the need for masks, are heeding the words of Robert Frost: “Freedom lies in being bold.” To that end they are uniting to end the mask mandates in classrooms.
Members of Arizona Stands United will be holding a rally at the Capitol on Monday afternoon after presenting Governor Doug Ducey with petitions bearing the signatures of over 10,000 Arizona who want children to have a choice.
The group, whose slogan is #LetTheChildrenBreathe, believe that due to the fact that the vast majority of teachers have been vaccinated, there is no justification for forcing children to wear masks.
The debate concerning wearing masks in schools has spurred heated discussions, and caused awkward, and even disturbing situations. Some teachers have been forced to call security on students who defy school mask policy.
The issue raises serious questions, not the least of which is how will the education system embrace choice and freedom for minors?
PHOENIX — Rep. Michelle Udall, chair of the House Education Committee, sent a letter to Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction asking why the state is holding on to $85 million, that Udall says could help school districts avoid teacher layoffs.
Udall also noted in her letter to Superintendent Kathy Hoffman that “in addition to withholding these millions from our schools, ADE is also spending more than $7 million of it to simply administer the funds (the maximum allowed).”
Udall’s questions come in the wake of several districts announcing layoffs due to declining enrollment. Declining enrollment means declining funding as school dollars are allocated based on attendance.
“Unfortunately, as we see from the current events in Gilbert and other districts facing similar decisions in the coming weeks, this money has not been allotted where it is needed most,” wrote Udall referring to reports of teacher layoffs.
From the Yellow Sheet:
The AZ Dept of Education plans to use some of its Covid relief dollars for a marketing campaign to bring families back to the fold. The campaign, which will cost about $150,000, is aimed at students who left district and charter schools for alternative options during the pandemic or who delayed enrollment.”
“Instead of allocating all of the available money to districts who need it, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is for some reason holding onto nearly $85 million of discretionary money from the initial $1.5 billion allotment that should be put to use to help stabilize Arizona schools so that they don’t have to make premature reductions in staffing when many of those students may be returning in the coming school year.
Across the state, districts are seeing dramatic declines in enrollment as parents go in search of educational opportunities other than the hybrid-online type that the teacher’s union pushed even as the pandemic waned, and evidence showed that children were not super-spreaders. In fact, over 55,000 K-12 students have disenrolled for the state’s traditional public schools.
Despite the decline, which has been occurring over a number of years and was only exacerbated by the teachers’ recent refusal to return to in-classroom learning, Udall believes that students may return, and premature layoffs would lead the districts to rely on long-term substitute teachers.
Even though the ADE has received over $1 billion in CARES Act ESSER and ESSER II funding, Udall told Hoffman that the Legislature “is currently working on a state budget that, I believe, will help alleviate the intense fiscal pressure some of these schools are facing.”
“But that won’t happen until the budget process is finished,” warned Udall. “You currently have on hand millions in discretionary funds that could, and should, be made available immediately – discretionary funds that were given to the Arizona Department of Education for precisely this purpose.”
Hoffman responded on Twitter that the money was not enough.
It’s no secret that Arizona public schools need funds to stabilize their budgets and ensure that all students have access to high-quality educators and programs. Other school leaders and I have been ringing this alarm for months.
Udall and Hoffman may not believe there will ever be enough money for schools. On the other hand, parents who have fled the schools believe that there will never be again enough students to fill the schools and employ the teachers that abandoned their kids at such a critical time.
After a year of remote learning, there are differences in the learning system that are noticeable today. Firstly, is my new role being the position a hybrid teacher is now a social worker and academic teacher. It is my job to teach and take care of my students social charges/needs. Secondly, there is difficulty conducting parent-teacher communication as it requires flexibility of schedule from both parties, which has proven exhausting. Thirdly, there is a job redundancy since the teacher or records must fill in the social worker invention form to have it returned. The teacher is then required to supply the same answers from the student. That is avoidable by a simple phone call from the counselor to the student’s family to fill the form.
After identifying the problem, I took it upon myself to build a parent academy with the school principal’s approval. The academy is yet in the planning stages, but we plan on launching it in August 2021. The project has been instrumental in bringing parents together to solve some of the problems we face. Notably, there is a lack of counselors in the planning group. Therefore, it is of interest because counselors do not see the project as one that should be of interest towards fulfilling their roles. After following up on this, the most common answers I received were that they were too busy and their commitment to teaching or being called upon to provide substitute coverage and counseling students they could not spare time for the academy. That has raised the question of if bureaucracy in public schools is affecting the delivery of services. That is concerning because the public requires results from the education system.
Nevertheless, the academy is still in the planning stage, and we have engaged the public and business sectors to provide for a mentorship program. The parents and students must work together to ensure the all-round growth of our students.
