It's good to watch your state lose its lead as a school choice innovator not because it's backsliding, but because other states are making it easier for families to pick education options for their kids. It's even better when your state reclaims the lead through increased freedom. Last week, my state of Arizona did just that with the passage of a law expanding the use of education savings accounts (ESA) that let education funding follow students to their families' preferred learning environments rather than locking them into one-size-fits-some government institutions.
Once favored by officials across party lines, educational freedom has, in recent years, become a partisan issue mostly supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats (with commendable exceptions such as Gov. Jared Polis (D–Colo.) a champion of charter schools, and other less impressive ones such as the GOP lawmakers who blocked choice in Iowa). That was the case last week when HB 2853 passed on a party-line vote. It was guaranteed Republican Gov. Doug Ducey's support given that he not only called for school choice legislation in January, but boasted at the close of the legislative term that "we enacted the most expansive school choice legislation in the nation."
