AZ Wins Silver for Education Freedom, Must Go for Gold

Arizona scored an impressive silver medal this past week, landing the #2 spot out of all 50 states on the Heritage Foundation’s inaugural Education Freedom Report Card. The report measured four categories: school choice, education transparency, return on investment for education spending, and regulatory freedom. Thanks to the policies championed by parents and policy advocates including the Goldwater Institute—and the work of state lawmakers and Governor Doug Ducey—Arizona dominated all but one state in the rankings: Florida, which outshined Arizona in its commitment to academic transparency.

After passing the nation’s most expansive school choice legislation in history earlier this summer, Arizona unsurprisingly won the top spot for “school choice.” But as Heritage notes, the state’s failure to pass protections against race-based, “Critical Race Theory”-style instruction in K-12 schools and its failure by a single vote to secure academic transparency for parents cost it in the rankings:

“In 2022, Arizona lawmakers considered proposals to improve academic transparency and reject critical race theory, but lawmakers did not adopt proposals that would have advanced these policies,” Heritage said.

Read the rest of the op-ed in the Arizona Capitol Times.

Matt Beienburg is the Director of Education Policy at the Goldwater Institute. He also serves as Director of the Institute’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy.