Since the results of the 2024 election came in, much of the focus has been on President-elect Donald Trump’s historic win—and rightfully so. Trump won every single swing state in a massive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, and he beat her in the popular vote too.
But Kamala Harris wasn’t the only significant loser to come out of November’s election.
Here in Arizona, teachers’ unions and other anti-school choice groups, like Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ), made the 2024 election a referendum on school choice. And they lost big!
Much of their work began earlier this year, when Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs came into legislative session (just like she did in 2023) with her top priority being to regulate the wildly popular Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program out of existence. But it didn’t work. Despite the noise from Hobbs, legislative Democrats, the legacy media, the teachers’ unions, and other anti-school choice groups, only minor changes were made to the ESA program through the budget, with most of it remaining untouched.
This failure fell on the heels of other similar failures.
In 2023, Attorney General Kris Mayes went after the ESA program at the Department of Education. In a public tirade, she falsely claimed that the budget agreement that protected universal school choice would bankrupt the state, despite the expenditure data showing that the ESA program actually saves the state money. But her tirade didn’t stop the Republican budget bill from being signed by Hobbs the same year in another failure to place any limitations on the ESA program.
And let’s not forget what happened in 2022. After then-Governor Ducey signed universal school choice into law in Arizona, the teachers’ unions and groups like SOSAZ threw a hissy fit and immediately began working to stop the new law by gathering signatures for a ballot initiative aimed at overturning ESAs. But they were met every step of the way by an organic movement of parents, teachers, and community members who informed people with the truth and convinced them that it was ok to decline to sign.
Despite this, SOSAZ claimed to have 141,714 signatures, which would have been enough to put the anti-school choice initiative on the ballot. But the group was left with egg on its face when the final signature count revealed that they were actually more than 52,000 signatures short in another failed attempt to overturn ESAs.
You would think that after all these failures, the far-left education community would have learned its lesson. But that’s asking too much.
As we approached the 2024 election, Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign raised millions to flip the Arizona legislature blue. And the teachers’ unions, combined with anti-school choice groups like SOSAZ, followed in her footsteps. They made it no secret that their top priority was to roll back and eliminate the ESA program—along with other popular school choice programs. That’s why they spent millions to push candidates with a long track record of being anti-school choice like: Christine Marsh, Kelli Butler, and Karen Gresham in Legislative District 4; Judy Schwiebert in Legislative District 2; and Keith Seaman in Legislative District 16—to name a few.
Voters heard the message loud and clear. And how did they respond? By doing the exact opposite.
With the 2024 election now complete, Republicans expanded their majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate. That means school choice is here to stay in our state, and it’s time that the far-left education community comes to grips with this fact.
The reality is that more and more families are recognizing the tremendous benefits of school choice. Over 83,000 students are now enrolled in the ESA program. This has not only saved taxpayers money, but it has strengthened all schools because competition delivers the best product—leading to better students, families, and communities.
If teachers’ unions truly cared about students, they would be on board for this. But instead, groups like the Arizona Education Association responded to the election results by promising “to be the union thugs we were meant to be.” That’s right. After 2 ½ years and multiple failures trying to overturn school choice, they’d rather double down on militant left craziness than learn a lesson.
That’s fine with us. We’ll just keep fighting back with a winning message—that every student throughout our state deserves the best education possible and the funding to make it happen.
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