Frequently Searched

Week in Review: Childcare At Risk

August 16, 2024

Things keep getting worse for Arizona’s working families.

TThey’re already facing endless waiting lists and exorbitant expenses for quality childcare amid a crisis-level shortage that costs Arizona’s economy nearly $5 billion per year. Now state bureaucrats want to force childcare providers to kick children out of their facilities and turn away new families—even when they are fully equipped to care for them.

The proposed across-the-board cap on “group size,” which would severely limit the number of children allowed in childcare spaces, violates state law, so the Goldwater Institute this week urged the Arizona Department of Health Services not to adopt the rule.

Irrational bureaucratic requirements should not be a barrier between families and the care they need.

Read more.

School District Splurges for Luxury Vacations,
Then Begs Voters for More Money

If public officials are asking you to fork over a larger slice of your hard-earned dollars, isn’t it fair to ask if they’re spending what you’ve already given them wisely?

This week, the Goldwater Institute uncovered how the Phoenix-area Tolleson Union High School District’s administrators and board members treated themselves to multi-day vacations at four-star resorts in Sedona and Tucson, all on the taxpayers’ dime. As if that weren’t enough, now they’re asking voters to give them even more money in the upcoming “budget override” and bond elections.

Our public officials must always be held accountable for how they spend taxpayer dollars. The Goldwater Institute is hard at work making sure that happens.

Read more.

 Surplus, Savings, & Media Misinformation

Parents around the nation are clamoring for school choice so their kids can get the education they deserve. But despite that, progressives are stopping at nothing to maintain their control over education.

Thankfully, Goldwater has created a gold standard for school choice in Arizona that other states can follow—a landmark universal education savings account (ESA) program—with facts to back up that success. Indeed, Arizona’s nonpartisan budget analysts recently concluded: “We estimate the total combined district/charter/ESA enrollment will generate savings of $(352,200) in FY 2024.”

By simply proclaiming a national “consensus” in support of their own views, anti-ESA progressives suggest the education status quo should be preserved because…that’s how it’s always been.

Families can do better. Thanks to ESAs, they are.

Read more.

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.

Wait! Don’t close this yet!

We are grateful for your support of the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to advance and defend liberty throughout the United States. For over 36 years, we’ve been defending the rights of Americans to live their lives free from government interference.

And Goldwater is unique in that we direct our efforts to the 50 states where we introduce and advance innovative ideas that expand freedom. And we fight in courtrooms and capitals nationwide to defend individual liberty.

In 2024 alone, we scored over 50 policy and litigation victories defending liberty!

And that’s just the beginning.

Our plans for 2025 include:

  • Stopping pernicious DEI and other woke programs in America’s universities.
  • Ensuring that patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases have access to cutting-edge, lifesaving medical treatments, without having to first seek permission from the government.
  • Defending parental rights across the United States so that parents can send their kids to the school that best fits their needs, free from leftist indoctrination.
  • Eliminating government interference in the fundamental right of individuals to own property and use it as they see fit.
  • And much, much more

We seek to restore the presumption of liberty; that people are free to act without first asking permission from the government.

But we cannot do this without you. Will you join us as we fight to preserve and advance liberty throughout the country? As we seek new and innovative ways to defend freedom in all 50 states?

And there’s great news: Thanks to a generous Goldwater supporter, your donation today will be doubled!

So please, join us in fighting to advance liberty and score real wins for freedom from coast to coast!