No one doubts that pencils and books are essential school supplies—that’s why it was so ridiculous that Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes was forcing families in the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts school choice program to explain, item by item, why their kids needed basic educational materials. The Goldwater Institute sued over the illegal mandate. Now, Mayes has waved the white flag, freeing those families from countless wasted hours filling out unnecessary paperwork.
Mayes launched her attack on ESA families two years ago, threatening litigation against the Arizona Department of Education if it didn’t force parents to tie every educational item they bought with ESA funds—including pencils and kids’ books—to a specific curriculum. The problem: Mayes’ mandate had no support in statute and directly violated the state’s ESA handbook. Goldwater sued, and Mayes’ office has finally withdrawn its demands, meaning ESA parents will no longer need to spend precious time filling out bureaucratic forms explaining why basic school supplies are necessary for their kids’ education.
More than 100,000 students use Arizona’s wildly successful ESA program to receive an education that works for them. Sadly, the teachers’ unions want to end the program—they simply don’t want to relinquish their power over education to regular families. That’s why Goldwater is now defending two Air Force veterans whose ESA funds are threatened by a new activist attack.
Every child deserves a great education, even if it’s different from the one-size-fits-all public school model. In Arizona and around the country, the Goldwater Institute will always stand up for families and fight for education freedom.
Read more about Goldwater’s victory over Attorney General Mayes.
Read more about Goldwater’s defense of military families.
Home-based businesses are important economic engines in the modern economy, but too often regulators can’t see the forest for the trees. Fortunately, hardworking entrepreneurs in North Carolina no longer need to beg the government for permission to launch a business in their living room now that Gov. Josh Stein has signed the Goldwater Institute’s Home-Based Business Fairness Act.
The Act—House Bill 372 in North Carolina—cuts through government red tape by prohibiting cities from forcing no-impact home-based businesses to go through grueling commercial rezoning processes or jump through bureaucratic hoops like installing commercial sprinkler systems in single-family homes. Simply put, North Carolinians now have a right to run a business from their home if they aren’t causing a genuine nuisance or harming their neighbors.
Home-based businesses are a vital ladder to financial independence. That’s why the Goldwater Institute continues to fight in state houses around the country for economic liberty and against government overregulation.
Read more here.
It’s a troubling pattern: political leaders claim to want more plentiful and affordable housing—then they aggressively use the power of their offices to make new homes more difficult to build. “The result is fewer houses, higher housing costs, and major policy decisions made outside the democratic process,” writes the Goldwater Institute’s Jon Riches in a recent National Review article.
To back up his point, Riches points to Arizona, where Gov. Katie Hobbs’ administration unilaterally blocked new home construction in most of Maricopa County in the name of water preservation and environmental conservation. But Hobbs’s anti-housing rule wasn’t authorized by lawmakers and her administration didn’t even promulgate a formal rule. “Instead,” Riches writes, “they just stopped processing permit applications.”
An Arizona court ultimately agreed with the Goldwater Institute’s challenge and blocked Hobbs’ illegal water rule. Unfortunately, government agencies in other states are imposing similar undemocratic mandates—a practice that needs to stop.
“These policies carry severe consequences,” Riches writes. “When housing supply is artificially constrained, prices rise, families are priced out, and economic growth slows — not because lawmakers have weighed water and development needs, but because administrative agencies have changed the rules.”
Read more here.
