This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, August 14, 2024, and Caleb Brown.

Claims from those who oppose placing parental choice at the center of educational

decision-making deserve scrutiny.

One of the most politically salient claims right now is allowing education funding to follow

students to wherever they learn best?

Well, it will harm taxpayers, public schools, and ultimately make budgets less sustainable.

Cators Neil McCluskey discusses the most recent claims surrounding Arizona, one of the most parent

focused states when it comes to K-12 education.

A lot of the opponents of giving parents a broader range of educational options for their kids,

people who are, for lack of a better term, defenders of the status quo, or school choice has taken root in so many states not defenders of the status quo.

They've been going to go backwards in time with respect to school choice.

A lot of them are pointing to Arizona right now and suggesting

that school choice programs, specifically the education savings account program that has been

launched there that is funding the educations of tens of thousands of students in Arizona

Has blown a massive hole in the state budget

Sure, so there are a number of accusations being made against the ESA program in Arizona.

The reason that Arizona's education savings account program has become a major target, importantly, is that it is the first

fully universal school choice program we have, and that means Universal First and that anybody can

qualify to get these funds. It's no longer based on income or whether you're

assigned to a school district that is low performing, anybody

can get it and Arizona actually funds all that.

So we have a lot of states that have gone universal, but they don't have the funding for everybody.

...