Gov. Katie Hobbs wants the government to take over private and home-based education. She’s launching a direct assault on 70,000 students and their families who are finally getting the education they deserve thanks to Arizona’s universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
Well, Goldwater has a message for Gov. Hobbs: Not. Going. To. Happen.
We’ve been on the forefront of school choice in Arizona, creating the nation’s first ESA program more than a decade ago and then expanding ESA eligibility to every family in the state in 2022. Through it all, we’ve defended school choice from the leftists who’ve lobbed attack after attack on ESAs and the families they help—families who are desperate for better education options. For instance, Gov. Hobbs wants to force students to attend public school for 100 days before they can participate in the ESA program—an arbitrary obstacle that would force families to spend over three months in an environment that doesn’t meet their kids’ needs.
But progressives’ plot to rob families of school choice won’t work. Not when this parent-led movement has already freed millions of families in Arizona and nationwide from the public education establishment’s grip. And not when the Goldwater Institute stands ready to fight for these families’ rights every step of the way.
Read more here.
The Goldwater Institute is racking up win after win against the pernicious influence of mandatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) initiatives in public higher education—and the national media is taking notice.
“Under pressure from legislatures in conservative-leaning states, universities have reduced DEI staffing,” the Washington Times reports, praising the Goldwater Institute for “fueling the movement” before noting: “Last year, Texas and Iowa enacted laws defunding DEI programs at state universities. Arizona and Florida outlawed mandatory ‘diversity statements’ for job applicants.”
And that’s just the start, as Goldwater is poised to defeat DEI in even more states in 2024. This is a dogma that goes against everything our Constitution stands for. It encourages racial discrimination to meet arbitrary quotas and foments a culture of fear in just about every aspect of university life, ordering students and faculty alike to prioritize skin color over character.
It’s time to dismantle DEI—for good.
Read more at the Washington Times.
Will they ever learn? Yet another state government is subsidizing its favored special interests on the taxpayers’ dime so that those special interests can lobby for even more government. Now the Goldwater Institute is heading to the Texas Supreme Court to fight one of the most offensive, blatantly corrupt ways that the government spends your money.
The state Supreme Court is taking up Goldwater’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of union release time, which allows government to pay public-sector unions untold millions of dollars in salaries for employees who don’twork for the government, but who instead work to further their union’s interests. But under the Texas Constitution, government cannot give “gifts” to private organizations, including unions.
As Goldwater’s investigations have uncovered, release time is a pervasive practice nationwide—and making matters worse, many governments don’t even bother tracking it. But Goldwater is fighting this unconstitutional scheme around the country—from the municipal level all the way up to the Arizona and Texas Supreme Courts. We’re not stopping anytime soon—because the law is on our side.
Read more here.
Though the history, philosophy, and economics of freedom are all important, there’s another aspect of freedom that is even more important: the virtue of pride. In the tenth installment of the Foundations of Freedom video series, Goldwater Vice President for Legal Affairs Timothy Sandefur explores the simple pleasure of being free and the satisfaction we get from taking responsibility for ourselves.
Watch Episode 10 here.
