Thanks to your support, the Goldwater Institute achieved great success defending freedom in 2022, passing laws and winning lawsuits that empower millions of Americans to live freer, happier lives.
Here are five of the Goldwater Institute’s top highlights from the past year:
1. The biggest expansion of school choice…ever — The teachers union-backed public school apparatus tried to maintain its stranglehold on education in 2022, but the Goldwater Institute gave America a blueprint for empowering parents to take charge of their children’s education. In Arizona, Goldwater enacted the biggest school choice reform in American history—a reform that states across the country can replicate. Thanks to the universal expansion of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, which Goldwater created more than a decade ago, all families are free to pursue the education style that best meets their kids’ unique needs.
2. Empowering parents to find out what’s happening in schools — Parents need to know what their children will be learning before they make an enrollment decision—but public schools are keeping them in the dark. That’s why, in more than twenty states, the Goldwater Institute worked to advance its first-in-the-nation Academic Transparency Act, which requires public schools to post a listing of their learning materials online. Moreover, parents around the country are already using the Goldwater Institute’s new OpenMyGovernment.org guide to file effective public records requests when their school districts try to keep secrets. Goldwater’s American Freedom Network of pro bono attorneys is helping concerned citizens in states ranging from Texas to Rhode Island to New York access the public information they are entitled to.
3. Keeping taxpayers’ money in taxpayers’ pockets — As Washington politicians and special interests schemed to hike taxes, Goldwater worked to ensure Americans get to keep more of their hard-earned money. Goldwater went to court to vanquish Arizona’s Prop 208—an unconstitutional leftist power grab that would have massively increased income taxes and killed thousands of jobs. Not only did Goldwater defeat this tax increase, but the Institute enacted the nation’s lowest flat tax rate of 2.5 percent in Arizona—then successfully defended this historic tax reform law in court from a challenge by special interests. Goldwater also spearheaded the statewide effort to pass Prop 132, which requires a 60 percent affirmative vote to raise taxes at the ballot—ensuring there is a high bar to hike taxes on Arizonans. And as governments across the country hand out taxpayer dollars like candy, Goldwater showed the nation how to beat these illegal giveaways by trouncing Pima County’s $15 million “balloondoggle” subsidy for a space balloon tourism company.
4. Putting patients first with historic Right to Try expansion — The government is preventing critically ill Americans from accessing potentially lifesaving, cutting-edge treatments tailored specifically for their illness. That’s why the Goldwater Institute created the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments, which expands on its original Right to Try law. Goldwater enacted this legislation in Arizona first with the support of the Riley family, who had to move to Italy so their infant daughter could access the gene therapy that saved her life. And the Rileys are continuing to speak out so that states around the country follow Arizona’s lead and put patients first.
5. Secured: Americans’ right to earn a living — With a recession looming, Goldwater’s successful efforts to break down barriers to work is more crucial now than ever before. In 2022, the Goldwater Institute passed versions of its landmark Breaking Down Barriers to Work reform in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Virginia, streamlining the process for countless experienced professionals with occupational licenses to get to work when they move to a new state. Goldwater also passed its signature Right to Earn a Living Act in Louisiana and enacted its Home-Based Business Fairness Act in Iowa and Missouri, cutting red tape so that residents of those states don’t have to jump through regulatory hoops just to earn a living.
Goldwater was hard at work in 2022 defending our fundamental liberties against the left’s full-frontal assault on the very idea of what it means to be an American. But the fight is far from over.
“I don’t think there’s a more important time for the Goldwater Institute than right now,” says renowned conservative commentator Glenn Beck, who delivered the keynote address at our 2022 Annual Dinner. After all, we have an obligation to protect the American Dream against an out-of-control government—and thanks to your support, we’re showing the nation how to win. “If you want to make a difference,” Beck tells lovers of liberty, “speak up and find an organization—may I recommend the Goldwater Institute—that will reflect what you’re fighting for, and donate.”
From all of us at the Goldwater Institute, have a happy new year. In courtrooms and capitols around the nation, we can’t wait to continue safeguarding Americans’ right to live their lives the way they see fit—in 2023 and beyond.
