Gov. Katie Hobbs rolled out a new set of proposed regulations to Arizona’s growing Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, presenting them as reasonable regulations simply designed to make the program work better.
Closer inspection shows, however, that they are designed to make it worse.
None of this should be surprising. Gov. Hobbs ran on a platform of trying to eliminate school vouchers.
Given the makeup of the Arizona Legislature, she was unable to do so. Undeterred, she is simply grabbing the nearest weapon at hand to wield against ESA and the tens of thousands of families who are happily taking part in it.
ESA rules won’t improve special education
Start with special education.
From the governor’s fact sheet, the new regulations would “require private schools to provide accommodations and services in accordance with an ESA student’s Individualized Learning Plan or Section 504 Plan.”
Let’s remember that many of the students participating in ESAs are doing so because the needs identified in their Individualized Learning Plan or Section 504 Plan (which both spell out a student’s learning needs and the steps that a school will take to address them) were not being met in their public school.