Lost in all the other, relatively trivial, crap coming out of the current administration, we have the on-going dismantling of the Department of Education.

Despite all the noise coming out of the non-educators running the place, hollowing out and shutting down the agency is really just a diversion from the larger Republican goal: selling off the entire public education system to the highest bidder.

That, of course, is not something that can be done at the federal level. Schools in the US are almost entirely run by state and local governments.

And when it comes to killing public schools in the US, no one is doing a better job of it than Arizona. 

Perhaps more than any other state, Arizona has embraced market competition as a central tenet of its K-12 education system, offering parents an extraordinary opportunity to choose and shape their children’s education using tax dollars, and developing a national reputation as the Wild West of schooling.

The state has supported a robust charter school system, tax money for home schooling and expansive private school vouchers, which are available to all families regardless of income. Nearly 89,000 students receive Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, a form of vouchers, state data show; a second voucher program awarded nearly 62,000 tax-supported private school scholarships in 2024, though some students received more than one. More than 232,000 students attend charter schools.

The Post calls this “market competition”, which is a whole lot of crap. As in almost every state with “choice” programs like this, students in charter and private schools are not assessed in the same way. So parents and students have no meaningful way to determine which of the institutions have better outcomes. 

Those schools also don’t have to serve every child in a community; they get to choose the kids they will admit (and keep), allowing them to fudge (at best) their statistics.

Anyway, in Arizona only about 75% of students attend public schools and that number has been steadily falling. Which also means a steady increase in the number of schools that are forced to close.

But that’s accompanied by the ballooning cost of paying for private education.

The expansive voucher program also has strained the state budget, with costs projected to top $1 billion this year, far more than originally projected. Because many voucher students were already attending private schools, including many from wealthy families, funding them is a new expense for the state. That’s drained dollars, critics say, that could and should go to public education in a state that ranks 47th in spending on K-12 per-pupil spending.

Arizona is certainly not alone in their efforts to drain funding from public schools to pay for private education. Ohio, Florida, and Kentucky are among states that are spending a billion or more on voucher programs. Most of which goes to parents who can afford to pay the tuition costs and likely already have their kids enrolled.

So, which state will be the first to take the final step and shut down their public schools? All in the name of “school choice” and claiming the “competition” will improve learning for every student?

The photo is the Department of Education building in DC. I wonder when we’ll see a “for sale” sign out front.