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Announcing The Freedom Agenda: Goldwater’s State Policy Handbook

October 9, 2025

You can view and download the PDF of The Freedom Agenda here.


For decades, the Goldwater Institute has led the way in advancing policies that protect liberty and empower individuals. From expanding school choice and dismantling DEI mandates in higher education, to championing the Right to Try and breaking down barriers to work, our mission has always been to transform bold ideas into real reforms that improve people’s lives.

Today, we’re proud to release The Freedom Agenda: Goldwater’s State Policy Handbook—a new resource designed for our partners across the country who share our commitment to advancing freedom in every state. This handbook brings together Goldwater’s proven policy solutions and provides model legislation that state leaders can put into action.

Proven Victories Across the States

Our success has never come alone—it has come through collaboration with dedicated partners. The Goldwater Institute has partnered with think-tanks, activists and lawmakers across the states to pass the model legislation contained in this handbook, resulting in countless victories for liberty over the years. We hope that you’ll consider partnering with us to bring one or more of our model policies to your state.

A Roadmap for Reform

The Freedom Agenda outlines Goldwater’s priorities for the years ahead, including:

  • Education Freedom and Transparency: All over the country, American families face the hard truth that their public schools are failing their children. The Goldwater Institute believes that parents should be in charge of their kids’ education, not teachers unions or education bureaucrats. By supporting Education Savings Accounts and Academic Transparency, Goldwater aims to empower families to choose the best schools and to know what’s being taught in the classroom.
  • Free Enterprise and Economic Liberty: Americans have a natural right to earn a living and make the most out of their lives. Today, we see too many barriers to work, whether through occupational licensing or permits that make it difficult to build or launch a business. If America wants to see expanded opportunity, we need to focus on streamlining regulations that too often deploys these rules to protect bureaucrats, not the public.
  • Healthcare Freedom: No one should be told by the government that they don’t have the right to try every available option to fight their disease. Expanding the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments—so patients and doctors rather than bureaucrats decide when to pursue hope—will give those who want to take a chance the opportunity to save their own lives.
  • Constitutional Limits on Government: America’s founders installed checks and balances as the surest defense of liberty. But those safeguards are only as strong as our willingness to use them. The Goldwater Institute argues that it is time to restore and revitalize this constitutional machinery in an effort to hold government accountable, ensuring our nation stays both free and prosperous.

Work With Us

The Freedom Agenda is more than a handbook—it’s an invitation. We welcome the opportunity to partner with state think tanks, policymakers, and advocates who share our commitment to advancing liberty. Whether it’s providing model legislation, expert testimony, litigation support, or research tailored to your state, the Goldwater Institute is ready to stand with you.

If you’re ready to bring these reforms to your state, email us at info@goldwaterinstitute.org.

Together, we can build a future where freedom flourishes.

Brian Norman is the Director of State Affairs at the Goldwater Institute.

 

 

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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!