Filtering by
- All Subjects: Education--Finance
- All Subjects: School choice
- Creators: Morrison Institute for Public Policy
For over 15 years, interdistrict open enrollment and charter schools have allowed Arizona families to send their children to the public schools of their choice, regardless of where they reside. To better understand how parents “shop” within Arizona’s public education marketplace, this issue examines the mobility of elementary school students among districts and charter schools in the Metropolitan Phoenix area.
Illuminates the dynamics that influence how and why parents select schools and to suggest the need for a more critical evaluation of parent choices and their implications for public school reform.
Arizona has grown rapidly over the years and our education system has grown in step with the population. But increasing the total budget for education doesn't mean that we have directed more resources to each student. The numbers show that Arizona has one of the lowest per-pupil funding rates in the country. Parties of one faction or another argue endlessly about which numbers to use in comparing Arizona to other states, or even whether such comparisons are possible. What is indisputable is that Arizona ranks in the bottom tier of states in both education spending and in student achievement and that we have made substantial cuts in our funding of both K-12 and higher education since the beginning of the Great Recession.
The purpose of this brief report is to provide information about the past, present, and future of a very significant education reform program and tax increase, commonly known as Proposition 301. Coverage includes the history leading up to the ballot measure approved by Arizona voters in November 2000, its status approximately one year after it went into effect, and its prospects over a 20-year life span.