AZ Taxpayers on the Hook for School Board Member’s Trip to Social Justice Conference?

Should Arizona school districts be spending taxpayer dollars to send school board members to attend out-of-state conferences for training in left-wing identity politics?

Public records obtained by the Goldwater Institute reveal that the Phoenix Elementary School District Governing Board tried to do just that in the name of “professional development”—only to cancel the trip after this wasteful expenditure came under the Institute’s scrutiny.

The governing board had approved and registered one of its school board members, Regional Carrillo, to attend the Local Progress Conference in Oakland, Calif., from July 25 to July 27. The conference was set to focus on such topics as “Strategizing for Tenant Power and Taking on Corporate Landlords,” “Local Solutions for Immigrant Justice,” and “Governing While Black,” along with sessions designed to train attendees to build a “movement” for implementing these and other social justice ideologies. Of the 53 topics set to be covered in the three-day conference, only three were specifically about education. And those education topics covered such left-wing ideas as removal of school resource officers under the guise of school safety, opposition to parental school choice options, and the creation of “culturally responsive” curriculum driven by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals.

The taxpayer bill for the conference, including conference registration, air travel, hotel, and meals? Between roughly $3,000 and $4,000.

Amid Goldwater’s persistent efforts to obtain information about this approval, district officials seemed to get the message that they were not flying under the radar, and the board member canceled the trip. Score one for public transparency.

The expenditure of public tax dollars on education should go toward the need and benefit of students, not toward propping up ideologically driven training camps for aspiring political candidates or activists. Legitimate professional development for school board members—helping them learn how to fulfill responsibilities of their role, how to comply with open meetings laws, etc.—can help school board members do their jobs better, which serves the public interest. But taxpayers should not have to pay for school board members to be radicalized at out-of-state conferences and taught how to implement left-wing dogmas in their districts.

That’s why the Goldwater Institute is committed to keeping radical politics out of the classroom—and to ensuring that school board members aren’t radicalized on the taxpayers’ dime.