Week in Review: The Innovation Has Arrived

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board just blared the news to millions: the Goldwater Institute’s innovative model is the future of school choice.

After establishing the new gold standard for school choice last year by enacting the nation’s most comprehensive universal education savings account (ESA) program in Arizona, Goldwater passed universal school choice programs in four more states just in 2023 alone. And as the Journal notes, tens of thousands of families are flocking to school choice offerings in states like Arizona, Florida, Indiana, West Virginia, Iowa, and Arkansas—with more growth on the horizon.

It’s no wonder that school choice is in high demand: for decades, the teachers union-led public education apparatus has held millions of families in a stranglehold, limiting their options and trapping countless kids in failing schools. But the tide is turning, thanks in large part to ESAs, which Goldwater first created in Arizona more than a decade ago.

“In time states that are generous with ESAs are encouraging a variety of options to expand or open, whether faith-based, classical, Montessori or something new, and with families choosing what works best for them,” the Journalsays. “That’s what a future of school choice looks like.”

Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

The Price of Refusing to Prosecute

New York. San Francisco. Chicago. St. Louis. In a disturbing movement that’s plaguing major cities across America, violent criminals are roaming free, and the public servants charged with putting them away refuse to do anything about it.

Sadly, the people of Tucson are all too familiar with progressive prosecutors’ failure to prosecute, Goldwater Municipal Affairs Liaison Austin VanDerHeyden writes at Tucson Local Media. While Pima County District Attorney Laura Conover is in a position to protect the rights of all citizens, she seems more intent on letting criminals walk, leaving law-abiding citizens to fend for themselves, and harming the Tucson Police Department’s ability to uphold law and order.

“It’s like they don’t want us enforcing drug offenses. They will just refuse to prosecute anyone facing drug charges,” one Tucson police officer told VanDerHeyden. “We have our hands tied behind our back because of these soft-on-crime policies coming out of the county attorney’s office,” another added.

“Pima County voters elected Conover to do an incredibly important task: ensure the safety of Southern Arizona’s residents,” VanDerHeyden explains. Instead, she’s bending the law to fit her own ideological will.

It’s time for Conover to start doing her job.

Read more at Tucson Local Media.

A Chance to Rein in the Administrative State’s Tyranny?

We all learned how laws are made in grade school: The House and Senate debate and vote on proposed legislation, then send it to the president, who can sign it into law.

Simple, right? Not exactly. “In today’s world, most of the rules we must obey are created by unelected employees of the regulatory agencies often called the ‘Administrative State,’” Goldwater Vice President for Legal Affairs Timothy Sandefur writes in the Orange County Register. And due to a legal theory called “deference,” courts typically go along with whatever these bureaucrats want, no matter what the Constitution says.

But things might be about to change. The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in a case challenging judicial deference, and the Goldwater Institute filed a brief urging the high court to do so—just our latest action in a long, successful history of reining in the Administrative State. We’ve helped numerous Americans beat the bureaucratic bullies, and we’ve passed our landmark law to end state-court deference in multiple states around the country.

“The Constitution’s authors carefully designed a system of checks and balances where laws only go on the books when approved by the people’s representatives,” Sandefur adds. “It’s time to get back to basics.”

Read the rest here.