Week in Review: Down Goes Another Absurd Gov't Mandate

The Georgia Supreme Court concurs with the Goldwater Institute: economic liberty is one of the vital freedoms protected by the state constitution! In a unanimous ruling last week, the court struck down an absurd state law that prohibited people from earning money by helping mothers learn to nurse their babies.

The Goldwater Institute had filed multiple briefs urging the court to declare Georgia’s “lactation consultant” licensing law unconstitutional. And the justices agreed, reasoning that there’s no realistic threat to public safety from lactation consulting for money.

This case is just the latest part of Goldwater’s work championing Americans’ right to earn a living. Goldwater has already passed our Right to Earn a Living Act—which requires the government to prove a genuine need for restricting this fundamental right—in several states, and we’ve helped numerous Americans fight nonsensical government mandates so they can get to work. As Goldwater Vice President for Legal Affairs Timothy Sandefur writes at In Defense of Liberty: “The right to earn a living is one of the longest-standing and most crucial of the principles inherent in the ‘liberty’ that our federal and state constitutions were written to protect.”

Read more at In Defense of Liberty.  

Giving Families Choices Works

What costs $2,000 less per student each year and yet outperforms traditional public schools at a rate of 3 to 1?

Answer: Arizona charter schools.

A new analysis shows charter school students across the nation—but particularly in Arizona—had reading and math gains that outpaced those of students in district public schools. “Arizona charter schools are nearly three times more likely to deliver superior student learning outcomes relative to their district school peers,” Goldwater Director of Education Policy Matt Beienburg writes at In Defense of Liberty.

Tens of millions of students nationwide are trapped in a one-size-fits-all education system that assigns them a school based solely on their zip code. But the Goldwater Institute is showing America a better way. We’ve spent years successfully defending the Arizona charter school system from the union apparatus’ schemes to destroy it—complementing our work to create education savings accounts and expand them statewide to provide families with even more options.

As Beienburg writes: “For Arizonans interested in pushing the envelope on student opportunity, the latest findings should reinforce a very obvious notion: giving families a choice in education leads to better outcomes for all.”

Read more at In Defense of Liberty. 

Goldwater’s New Children’s Book Inspires Kids to Succeed

A is for apple…and the American Dream.
B is for baby…and Bravery.
C is for cookies…and Constitution.

The Goldwater Institute is excited to release our brand new children’s book, A Is for the American Dream—a book that teaches children about important American principles like bravery, hard work, liberty, and opportunity.

“Children need to know that the American Dream is for everyone,” says Goldwater’s Matt Beienburg, co-author of A Is for the American Dream. That’s why A Is for the American Dream inspires kids, showing them that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to.

The Goldwater Institute is leading the nation in building a strong foundation for the next generation. We’ve enacted universal school choice in six states (and counting), empowering millions of families to customize their children’s education around each student’s unique needs. And we’re working around the nation to ensure children learn about the fundamental principles of our constitutional republic, not the lies of Critical Race Theory.

We’re safeguarding America’s future, so that someday, today’s kids can live out their own American Dream.

Read about our new children’s book at In Defense of Liberty.