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I cant remember agreeing with Greg Millera Republican who runs a charter school and is ex-president of the Arizona Board of Educationbefore. But an op ed he wrote for the Capitol Times, GOP support of voucher expansion bill an insult to most students, is an exception to the rule. It begins, As an advocate for education reform for the past 35 years, a co-founder of a very successful charter school, a lifelong Republican, and the most recent past president of the Arizona State Board of Education, I have never been more embarrassed, outraged, disappointed, and angry to call myself a Republican. How on earth do the Republicans in the state Legislature who voted for the Empowerment Scholarship Account (voucher) bill, or our governor, who signed it, look in the mirror and in good faith, not understand what they have just done. Miller continues, Public education has been the equalizer for 150 years of economic growth and assimilation of immigrants into the culture that we enjoy today. This is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of students who do not have the resources to pay the additional thousands of dollars for the tuition these private schools will be charging above the state subsidy, and without the opportunity of a quality education provided in their local schools where due process and common goals of expectation drive the continued development of economic expansion for everyone, not just a privileged few. He ends by saying voters need to kick out the ESA expansion supporters in 2018. All Republicans that share this view [against voucher expansion] use your vote in next summers Republican primary to replace anyone who supported this transfer of economic wealth from our public school system to the private schools of the wealthy. Ill take exception with Miller here and say we need to kick out the anti-education Republicans and replace them with some pro-education, pro-child Democrats, but hey, we can agree to disagree on that one.

It looks like the negative reaction to the ESA expansion by Miller and some other reliable Republican supporters caught pro-voucher Republicans by surprise. Theyve been patting themselves on the back for a job well done and basking in the praise theyve received from privatizers around the country, but thereceptionhavent been quite as cheery as they'd hoped on the home front. Witness this sudden change of plans. ESA expansion supporters were all ready to take a victory lap Thursday in the form of a free "Thank You to the Legislators" lunch at the Capitol paid for by the American Federation for Childrenthats U.S. Ed Head Betsy DeVoss education privatization group, which pours money into the campaign coffers of right-thinking candidates in Arizona and around the country. At the last minute, speaker of the House J.D. Mesnard called off the celebration because he thought, according to an Associated Press article, it was ill-timed and emotions are still running high at the Capitol.

Seeing as how Republicans never worry about the feelings of Democrats, who they ignore whenever possible, those cant be the folks Mesnard is worried about. Hes still got a budget to pass, and he doesnt need to alienate dissenting Republicans any further by rubbing the ESA victory in their faces. Then there are the sizable number of Republican parents who send their kids to district and charterschools and agree with Democrats that more money for their schools, including raises for their children's overworked, underpaid teachers, ismore important than helping send other people's kids to private schools.

Meanwhile, House Democrats arent letting Mesnard, Ducey, & Co. forget the vote either.

See original here:
Trouble in Republican City Over Voucher Expansion? - Tucson Weekly