On Tuesday, House lawmakers convened to discuss the impact of universal school choice in the state.
The House Ad Hoc Study Committee on Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) Governance and Oversight heard public comments and expert testimony from Alan Maguire, a consultant with the Maguire Company; Patrick Moran, a Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) staffer; and John Ward, executive director of the ESA Program at the Arizona Department of Education (ADE).
Maguire said that ESA recipient growth has slowed as the school year has gone on, which he said was typical. He expressed the expectation that almost no matter what happens, the ESA Program’s implications for the state budget would be significant but manageable.
“I don’t think [the changes] we’re facing as a result of changes in the ESA recipients will be that challenging; challenging, but not scary challenging,” said Maguire.
Moran, the JLBC staffer, addressed the K-12 financing issues related to student movement between district and charter schools and the ESA Program. The Arizona Department of Education has $11.8 billion, but public schools receive funds from the Basic State Aid (BSA) Formula, which has $9.7 billion.
The BSA Formula factors funding based on average daily membership (ADM) student counts: enrollment of full-time/fractional students for the first 100 days, minus withdrawals, wherein students must meet the minimum requirements for total instructional hours/courses to be counted. The unweighted student count for the 2024 fiscal year was about 1.1 million.
Then, the ADM is weighted based on several grouped statutory factors: Group A weights adjust for school size, location (whether urban or rural), and type (K-8 or high school); Group B weights adjust for specific student populations, such as special education, English learners, or K-3 reading programs. With these group weightings, the 2024 fiscal year count reached about 1.56 million.
The BSA Formula components within the enacted budget established a base funding level of $7.8 billion, additional assistance at $1.04 billion, and transportation at $213 million. Property taxes fund nearly $2.6 billion of the public school formula, which the state partially offsets with a homeowner’s rebate (50 percent in the 2024 fiscal year with a cap of $600).
The enacted budget projected that the ESA Program would cost $625 million for 68,000 enrollees. However, actual enrollment is currently at about 70,000, and the ADE reported that awards have reached $665 million — $40 million over what was assumed in the budget. Moran said that this didn’t necessarily qualify as a shortfall for the ADE because they lack the data on where those new ESA students hailed from.
“We can’t determine the impact of ‘switchers’ in real time, because we don’t know of those 70,000 how many were in public school in FY 2024 and FY 2023,” said Moran. “We also need to know how much formula funding those students were generating in the district or charter school they were previously attending to calculate that net impact.”
Moran said that the average student award was lower from the ESA Program than for public district schools.
“Based on the data that ADE has shared with us, we think the average ESA [award] across all populations original and universal would be about $9,700 [per student], so it would be lower than the $12,200 [for charter schools] and lower than the $14,000 figure [for districts],” said Moran.
State Rep. Judy Schweibert (D-LD02) stated that Arizona ranked 48th in the nation for public school funding, based on federal data. House Speaker Ben Toma (R-LD22), the committee chairman, rebutted that the federal rank may not be entirely accurate, arguing each state’s funding formula for schools was unique and therefore not an apples to apples comparison.
Ward with the ADE offered management and administration updates concerning the ESA Program. Ward reported that the program has grown to nearly 70,200 students from over 13,400 students last September just prior to universalization. He projected that the ESA Program may reach anywhere from 90,000 to 100,000 students by the beginning of the next school year.
Ward projected that ESA awards may reach about $780 million by the end of the 2024 fiscal year. He dismissed concerns that the awards would bankrupt the state, reporting that even at that total the program would have a $57 million surplus in BSA.
Ward touched back on Moran’s assessment that public school student allocations were higher than ESA student allocations: $13,400 for public school students in the 2022 fiscal year versus $9,800 for ESA students in the 2024 fiscal year.
He reported that of the over 15,000 applications reviewed, several thousand were dismissed as incomplete. Additionally, almost 2,200 ESA accounts were suspended because of records indicating they were still enrolled in public school; their annual awards totaled over $21 million.
The ADE will be automating some of its processes going forward concerning purchase approvals and enrollment. ADE has partnered with ClassWallet to curate the catalogs of vendors on the marketplace and establish a rules engine, as well as to deploy directpay, reimbursement, and debit card auto approval through scanning technology and another rules engine.
Additionally, the ADE plans to improve data transparency by publishing a data dashboard. Types of data will include the number of ESA participants by eligibility type, grade level, gender, age, zip code, and county; number of students previously in a public school; number of applications coming in weekly and monthly; and average and median award amounts.
State Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (D-LD18) asked whether the surge in ESA Program popularity had to do with private school families. Moran said that 40 percent of ESA students came from public schools this fiscal year (2024), an increase from the last fiscal year (2023) prior to universalization.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Two of the largest private equity firms in the U.S. and the world, Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone, respectively, are now backing the adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) measures in Arizona’s utility companies.
The two globalist ESG-focused companies acquired Energy Exemplar on Halloween. Energy Exemplar owns Aurora Software Consulting Services, used by Arizona’s utilities to provide all modeling and analysis for the resource plans submitted to Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).
The resource plans submitted by Arizona Public Services (APS), Tucson Electric Power (TEP), and UniSource Energy Services (UNS) Electric largely align with the energy transition directives set forth by Net Zero by 2050.
“Consistent with these overall trends in the energy market. APS has committed to being 100% clean and carbon free by 2050,” stated the APS resource plan.
“[Our resource plan] outlines the sources we anticipate using to satisfy customers’ need for reliable, affordable energy over the next 15 years while working toward a new, long-term objective of net zero direct greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” stated TEP.
“[Our company has a] long-term transition to zero carbon emissions by 2050,” stated UNS Electric.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) — of which the U.S. is a member — came up with Net Zero by 2050, the roadmap to globalize the energy sector by total decarbonization, or achieving net zero carbon emissions, by 2050. Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners are among the biggest financial backers of the effort.
Specifically, Net Zero by 2050 aims to eliminate all emissions-producing energy sources (namely fossil fuels) by replacing them with less reliable renewable energy sources like solar and wind, bioenergies like biomethane, or hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels; instituting greater energy efficiency measures, such as reducing appliance energy consumption and reducing heating and cooling temperature consumption; and electrifying all fossil fuels-based products, such as cars, buses, trucks, heat pumps, and furnaces for steel production.
The campaign also aims to institute behavioral changes among the world’s populace, such as replacing driving with walking, cycling, or public transit, and in some cases foregoing flights entirely.
By 2030, the campaign proposes to introduce eco-driving and motorway speed limits of 60 miles an hour, phasing out gas cars in large cities (dubbed “ICE” cars, which stands for “internal combustion engine”), reducing “excessive” hot water temperatures, reducing the average weight of a passenger car by 10 percent, limiting the average space heating temperature to about 68 degrees and average space cooling temperature to 77 degrees.
By 2050, the campaign proposes to replace regional flights with high-speed rail, preventing business and long-haul leisure air travel from exceeding 2019 levels, improving fertilizer use efficiency by 10 percent, and reducing the use of “energy-intensive” materials per unit floor area by 30 percent.
The Biden administration is fully on board with Net Zero by 2050; the State Department issued its own roadmap on the matter in November 2021.
Blackstone, which manages about $1 trillion in assets, has committed to supporting the globalist goal of net zero by 2050. Per its 2022 climate-related financial disclosures report last year, the company estimated that it would take $115 trillion to reach net zero by 2050. The company invested about $100 billion toward that goal last year, and launched a dedicated credit platform for their ESG goals.
In 2021, Vista Equity Partners was among the first American private equity firms to join the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative. They pledged to reduce their $100 billion in portfolio companies’ emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and emit net zero greenhouse gas emission across their portfolio by 2050.
NZAM, launched in December 2020, is a formal partner of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Race to Zero Campaign. NZAM is regarded as the world’s largest climate finance alliance, with over 300 companies maintaining about $64 trillion in assets as of September. Blackstone is not part of NZAM.
As reported last month, ACC responded to controversy over utilities’ implementation of ESG policies with the claim that it lacked the authority to ban them from doing so.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A controversial post on social media from southern Arizona Democrats was deleted after attracting significant outrage from around the country.
Last week, the Pima County Democratic Party responded to a post on the platform “X,” calling for the end of school choice in Arizona.
The post that the Pima County Democrats chose to react to was from Greg Price, who, according to his bio, is involved with communications with the State Freedom Caucus Network. Price was alerting his more than 326,000 followers about the news out of the Illinois Legislature, where the state house there adjourned without extending the Invest in Kids program, which gives scholarship tax credits to almost 10,000 low-income children.
Pima County Democrats wrote, “Let’s make this a goal here in Arizona. Let’s kill school choice – send it to the grave.”
People were quick to respond to the post. Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope stated, “Let’s be clear about what this tweet means. School Choice in AZ really blossomed in the 1990s and times prior in AZ. @PimaDems want to end school choice options like Open Enrollment within a school district, charter schools, abolish private schools, eliminate home schooling. Basically have the government tell families what to do with their kids cuz the government knows best. Nope. Not gonna happen as long as I represent Pima County!”
Let’s be clear about what this tweet means. School Choice in AZ really blossomed in the 1990s and times prior in AZ. @PimaDems want to end school choice options like Open Enrollment within a school district, charter schools, abolish private schools, eliminate home schooling.… https://t.co/LSjDM3YaVy
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma weighed in, saying, “The Democrats’ desparate attacks on school choice do nothing but reveal their own desire to indoctrinate children with their radical leftist ideologies. They couldn’t stop charter schools or other school choice programs despite decades of trying. School choice is here to stay.”
Even a journalist from the Arizona Republic, Laurie Roberts, added her thoughts about the post. Roberts said, “Pima County Democrats want to kill charter schools, as well as universal ESAs? Genius plan if your goal is to remain the minority party at the Legislature.”
Pima County Democrats want to kill charter schools, as well as universal ESAs? Genius plan if your goal is to remain the minority party at the Legislature. https://t.co/UwnqQJHbVG
Despite the pushback on their post and the subsequent deletion of it, the county party continued to attack school choice over the weekend, focusing its ire on the state’s universal ESA program. The southern Arizona Democrats wrote, “Did you know that even though Arizona private and charter schools are fueled by our ESA/Voucher tax dollars, they can turn away kids for any reason they want. School choice isn’t your choice, it’s the school’s choice. 92% of AZ kids attend public schools. Fund them.”
Did you know that even though Arizona private and charter schools are fueled by our ESA/Voucher tax dollars, they can turn away kids for any reason they want. School choice isn't your choice, it's the school's choice. 92% of AZ kids attend public schools. Fund them. pic.twitter.com/GD4WVBxA8D
Their account added, “Private schools and Charter Schools are virtually non-existent in rural Arizona. The ESA and Voucher scam, robs rural public schools of their already dire funding, and gives it to parents in wealthy Scottsdale zip codes. It’s a scam folks.”
Private schools and Charter Schools are virtually non-existent in rural Arizona. The ESA and Voucher scam, robs rural public schools of their already dire funding, and gives it to parents in wealthy Scottsdale zip codes. It's a scam folks.
With the start of the Arizona legislative session just two months away, these sentiments from Democrats in the state’s second-largest county are instructive to ascertain how party activists will attempt to steer the policy movements on school choice issues. In the 2023 session, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs failed to achieve any cuts or increased regulations on ESAs, angering members of her base who felt that she abandoned her campaign promises. After signing the budget she negotiated with Republican legislators, however, Hobbs turned up the dial on her attacks on the ESA program, attempting to smooth over the frustrations of Democrats around the state. The uptick in political bickering with ESAs will be a factor in navigating critical boxes to check, including the completion of the next fiscal year budget.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizonans may be ready to do an about-face on a candidate for President of the United States if recent polls are any indication of next year’s results in the November 2024 General Election.
On Tuesday, Noble Predictive Insights released a poll, showing that former President Donald J. Trump has an eight-point lead over current President Joe Biden in the Grand Canyon State.
The snapshot of the still-distant race has many encouraging signs for the 45th President, although sixteen percent of Arizona voters may still be undecided. Trump holds an eighty-point advantage within the Republican Party for the General Election, while Biden appears to only command a net sixty-seven points inside his own party. Independents, who are Arizona’s largest voting bloc, are split between the two candidates (37-34 Trump), and there are still a significant portion of those voters who are unsure about who they will vote for – if at all – in November’s crucial contest.
Noble Predictive Insights also released a poll of the Republican primary field, showing Trump with a commanding lead over any other competitors. Trump’s numbers in the November survey grew to 53% of the Republican electorate (up from 50% in July), while Governor Ron DeSantis lost three points (19% from 16%). Ambassador Nikki Haley doubled her standing from the July report, acquiring eight percent of the Arizona GOP field (from four percent in July). Vivek Ramaswamy remained at nine percent. This poll was fielded at the end of October, when former Republican contenders Mike Pence and Tim Scott were in the race; Pence pulled in three percent, and Scott, one percent.
In the press release announcing the results of this latest poll, David Byler, the Chief of Research for Noble Predictive Insights said, “An eight-point lead for Trump is striking, but not surprising. Poll averages have Trump ahead of Biden by about a point nationally – that’s a five point swing from the 2020 results. If Arizona – one of the most closely contested states of 2020 – also swung that much, we’d expect individual polls to give Trump a mid-to-high single-digit lead. That’s exactly what our poll – and other recent surveys – have shown.”
The Noble Predictive Insights poll tracks what other recent surveys have telegraphed about the state of the General Election in Arizona: Trump does appear to have a lead over Biden in the state. The latest New York Times / Siena College poll has Trump up by five in Arizona in a head-to-head match-up (49-49 with 603 Registered Voters). Emerson College has the former President leading by two points with a set of polls of both “Likely” and “Registered” voters. And Morning Consult has Trump up four points (46-42 with 800 Registered Voters).
The poll from Noble Predictive Insights computed from 1,010 registered Arizona voters and took placed between October 25-31.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
While the contests weren’t as significant as in other states , last Tuesday, Arizonans concluded a month of elections, which largely took place via absentee ballots.
The majority of races across the state, primarily in Maricopa County, were for bond approvals. Flagstaff voters made decisions on almost two dozen questions, while Tucson voters considered mayoral and city council selections.
Opponents of municipal bonds had a decent night of results. On the Arizona Republic’s Election Tracker page, twelve of forty-four of those questions appeared to be rejected by voters. Many of those results came in the west and east regions of Maricopa County.
In the lead-up to the election, both the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and the Arizona Tax Research Association (ATRA) shed light on the spending requests up for adjudication by the voters. ATRA wrote in September that the “$3.5 billion in bonds is easily the largest statewide K12 bond request in history.” The Arizona Free Enterprise Club added, “This level of borrowing being sought by local school districts is both unwise and unnecessary, especially given the large amounts of money that have been pumped into the system.”
Most of the bond questions were approved, however, with several of those results occurring in Glendale and Phoenix. Glendale had five successful bond outcomes and Phoenix had four.
Jeff Barton, the City of Phoenix’s Manager thanked his municipality’s voters for their positive support for the bonds, saying, “Thank you, Phoenix residents, for supporting the 2023 General Obligation Bond Program. Because of your support, we will be able to fund critical infrastructure and rehabilitation needs of both aging City facilities and areas of rapid growth, with new and enhanced parks, libraries, fire and police stations, affordable housing, street improvements and more.”
In 2024, Arizona voters will have higher-profile races to make determinations on, including a President of the United States, a U.S. Senator, and a bulging list of initiatives with critical implications for the future of the state. Although elections in even years have both mail-in and in-person components, most of the voting is still done via absentee opportunities, making the return of those ballots critical to candidates’ and propositions’ successes.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
An Arizona State University (ASU) law school professor deleted a viral tweet detailing a racially-motivated verbal attack against Muslims after it was publicly exposed as a fake.
ASU professor Khaled Beydoun shared a picture in which an individual allegedly called another a “dirty Arab” and told them to go back to the Middle East. Beydoun alleged that an Instagram follower sent him the picture of the exchange (archived here). Khaled’s alleged follower purportedly responded that he was unable to return to the Middle East because the U.S. “gave Israel $14 billion last week to destroy it (Gaza).”
However, users on X (formerly known as Twitter) added a Community Note pointing out that the alleged racial attack message was in blue; on Instagram, that means the complainant sent the racial attack message to himself or herself.
“Blue on Instagram means that the message was sent from his own phone,” said the fact-check note. “Khaled presumably sent the racist message to himself.”
Jen Wright, Arizona’s former assistant attorney general, also debunked Beydoun’s post, and criticized ASU for hiring a supporter of a designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas, to teach courses advocating for Islam.
“Manufacturing bigotry for clicks is not a very inspiring image for @ASUCollegeofLaw,” said Wright. “Why does @ASUCollegeofLaw have a Hamas propagandist who fakes victimhood and lies about the war in the Middle East teaching Islamaphobia [sic] & about Race & the Law?”
Why does @ASUCollegeOfLaw have a Hamas propagandist who fakes victimhood and lies about the war in the Middle East teaching Islamaphobia & about Race & the Law?@asu has a wannabe Jessie Smollet on staff ginning up racial tensions. 🤦🏻♀️
Beydoun teaches two courses at ASU, both with an apparent progressive social justice slant: “Race and the Law,” and “Islamophobia and the Law.” ASU hired Beydoun in June.
Beydoun responded to the debunking of his post by emphasizing that he received the image from another individual, and claimed that those who fact-checked him were “bigots.” Beydoun didn’t apologize for the false claim.
“But people don’t read sadly,” said Beydoun. “If was [sic] flagged by bigots who didn’t read the caption then removed. Done deal, bigger fish to fry.”
Wright pointed out that Beydoun, with his massive platform (nearly 295,000 followers on Twitter and over 1.4 million followers on Instagram), was undertaking actions to exacerbate divisions.
“@ASU prof deletes post after using his platform to spread fabricated hate to gin up hysteria,” said Wright. “As someone teaching Islamaphobia [sic] @ASUCollegeofLaw, he must know that manufactured hate begets more hate, increasing tensions. Why add fuel to a powder keg on the verge of explosion?”
.@ASU prof deletes post after using his platform to spread fabricated hate to gin up hysteria.
As someone teaching Islamaphobia @ @ASUCollegeOfLaw, he must know that manufactured hate begets more hate, increasing tensions.
Wright pointed out that Beydoun also deleted another false post which used pictures from the war in Syria to accuse the Israel government of war crimes. Wright questioned Beydoun’s academic worth based on his consistent issuance of false information.
“[Beydoun] should know to fact check so he doesn’t make false & defamatory claims,” said Wright. “If he doesn’t fact check his posts, does he fact check his curriculum?”
Looks like he deleted the other post that used pictures from Syria in 2017 to lodge false accusations against @IsraeliPM alleging @IDF WAR CRIMES.
Beydoun’s latest book, “The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims,” included a foreword written by Kimberlé Crenshaw; she is credited for popularizing Critical Race Theory (CRT). In her foreword, Crenshaw noted that Beydoun was one of her Critical Race Studies students in 2001.
Last week, Beydoun also claimed that another one of his followers had ordered his book but had received a book on Israel instead.
Beydoun announced that all sale royalties would go to Gaza, governed by Hamas.
Following Hamas’ initial terrorist attack on Israel, Beydoun posted a quote from Malcolm X alluding that Hamas was the true victim and Israel was the true oppressor.
“Be careful. Ethnic cleaning [sic] becomes possible and permissible when you paint an entire people as terrorists,” said Beydoun. “‘If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people being oppressed, and loving those doing the oppressing.’ – Malcolm X.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
