By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
An Arizona woman is on a mission to save public education for the students of the Littlefield Unified School District (LUSD). Cathy Wright, of Scenic, Arizona, has been braving the heat out in front of the Beaver Dam Store, gathering signatures on a state-wide petition. The petition would seek to repeal a new state law that, Wright says, would damage local schools.
Arizona House Bill 2853 was passed in the closing days of the last legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey on July 7. The new law expands the state’s already existing Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program allowing all Arizona families to access more than $6,500 per year per K-12 student in education vouchers. The ESAs may be used for private school, homeschooling, micro schools, tutoring, or any other kinds of educational service outside the traditional public school system.
Wright says that the idea might be good for the urban schools that exist in Phoenix and other Arizona cities. But in rural areas of the state, like the LUSD, it can only hurt the smaller schools, she said.
“This is nearly a billion dollars of public education funding going to private schools and charter schools,” Wright said. “But around here there aren’t any private schools or charters. We don’t have that choice. Yet that money will be coming out of our schools that are already struggling. Once again, the rural kids will have to pay for an urban problem. That isn’t right.”
So when Wright learned about the Save Our Schools (SOS) Arizona initiative, she decided to get involved. This state-wide effort hopes to block the ESA expansion from ever going into effect. They have launched a referendum campaign to repeal what lawmakers approved. If the group can collect more than 118,000 signatures by Sept. 24, the expansion won’t take effect unless voters approve it by referendum in 2024.
So Wright has taken to setting up a table in front of Beaver Dam store and trying to gather signatures to support the SOS Arizona initiative. She plans to man this post on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3-5 pm up until the Sept. 24 deadline.
Wright admits it has been slow-going so far. By the end of last week she hadn’t collected very many signatures locally. But she is determined to keep up the fight and at least provide the opportunity for locals to be heard.
“We don’t usually have petition signing campaigns around here, and I think that people may not be too familiar with the problem,” Wright said. “Hopefully this will at least raise people’s awareness and folks will look into it over the next couple of weeks. I think that we will get more as the time goes.”
For more information about the SOS Arizona initiative visit sosarizona.com.
