Week in Review: Fighting the Anti-School-Choice Machine

The anti-school-choice machine shifted into high gear this week when The New York Times launched a broadside against the Goldwater Institute’s acclaimed, wildly popular expansion of school choice to every child in Arizona. The Times isn’t the only one attacking game-changing education freedom, either, but Goldwater is stepping in to set the record straight.

Alongside the Times, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs also pushed propaganda against Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. Both used falsehoods and misrepresentations to regurgitate the same old tired talking points: that school choice only helps rich families, and that ESAs are about to send the state’s finances over a cliff.

Never mind that total spending on universal ESAs makes up just 2% of total Arizona K-12 spending. Or that Arizona’s ESA program has been particularly popular among low-income families. Or that taxpayers will always save money when students switch from public school to the ESA program.

Leftist leaders want to seize education options from families—but they can’t stop the momentum of a parent-led movement that’s freed millions of families around the country to pursue the education their kids deserve. Progressive politicians and legacy media outlets should stop trying—and instead provide the facts about ESAs, free of manipulation.

Read more here. 

CRT vs. the Constitution?

Free speech vs. fearing to speak.
Racial discrimination vs. equality.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) vs. the Constitution.

Stanford Law School’s dean of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) is leaving the school after a much-criticized incident where she rudely confronted a conservative judge during his speaking event, called his work “abhorrent,” and suggested Stanford should rethink its speech policies. The episode highlights the battle raging within the training grounds of America’s next generation of lawyers and judges between those dead-set on implementing CRT- and DEI-based legal standards, and those committed to constitutional equality under the law.

Law school is supposed to prepare students to practice law. Unfortunately, elite law schools like Columbia, Harvard, and Yale are instead obsessed with prioritizing CRT, an ideology that seeks to undermine and replace most principles of liberal democracies—weaving CRT into their teaching and establishing research centers devoted to its principles.

“Only if law schools prioritize constitutionalism will our nation have lawyers dedicated to fulfilling their proper role: safeguarding the rule of law and a maintaining a liberal order that respects equality for all,” writes Corbin Witt, a fellow at Goldwater’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy, at Townhall.

Read more at Townhall.

Timeless Principles of Freedom

Today, authoritarianism is on the rise as more people reject individual liberty. The Goldwater Institute is spearheading the nationwide charge to defend individual freedom, and this month we joined more than 100 signatories from pro-liberty organizations in affirming the following principles:

• Liberty: The right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force.
• The pursuit of happiness: The freedom to engage in meaningful work.
• The foundation of prosperity: A free enterprise system unshackled from the corrosive combination of government intervention and private cronyism.
• Full faith and credit: A restoration of America’s fiscal sustainability.
• A nation of laws, not men: Equality under the law must apply to unaccountable and unelected bureaucrats who routinely violate Americans’ constitutional rights.
• Out of many, one: As many public policy choices as possible should be made by families and communities, not centralized authorities.
• America’s promissory note: We adamantly oppose racial discrimination; all Americans are heirs to our nation’s promise of freedom.
• Freedom of conscience: Federal and state governments must protect the freedom to speak one’s mind.

In courtrooms and capitol buildings around the country, the Goldwater Institute has defended these timeless principles, securing more liberties for millions of Americans. And we won’t let up—not until everyone is free to pursue their own American Dream.

Read more at In Defense of Liberty.