by admin | Jul 17, 2025 | Misc, News and Updates
Following President Trump’s directive to scrub divisive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, practices, and language from public institutions, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Education (DOE) to ensure that schools comply with these requirements.
The Arizona DOE notified every school district and charter public school that they must submit a completed certification confirming compliance with the federal civil rights law. A public website was developed to track which districts and schools have completed the certification and which have not. Though the majority of schools are listed as “in compliance,” the question remains: have they all truly purged their websites and learning environments of DEI practices? A quick review and some basic research suggest that not all these schools are fully committed to the removal of this woke material.
Alhambra Elementary School District in Phoenix has a subcommittee titled “Culture, Conditions, & Climate” with a stated need to “increase its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion capacity to ensure it is an inclusive environment.” The district plans to achieve this by subjecting staff to DEI trainings designed to establish that these adults teaching your children become anti-racist activists.
Recently, Scottsdale Unified School District has been the center of controversy surrounding their adoption of new textbooks that teach about George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, and anti-law enforcement rhetoric. Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has spoken out against this anti-American, DEI-infested curriculum, emphasizing that schools must steer clear of promoting an “unbalanced political agenda.”
In Glendale, the Washington Elementary School District has published a “Statement of Commitment to Educational Equity,” in which it outlines how DEI principles are integrated into its educational framework.
In an application for federal charter school start-up grants for 2024-2028, Desert Sage High School in Tucson declares its commitment to “diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-bias education, and social justice.” Among its goals is increasing the percentage of Hispanic and Native American students—an effort aimed more at virtue signaling just to demonstrate how unbiased they really are.
Several other schools maintain overreaching non-discrimination statements that include “gender identity” and “sexual orientation,” and some keep DEI in their mission statements.
And these are just the districts and schools that claim to comply with the federal civil rights law.
On the “Out of Compliance” list, the Flagstaff Unified School District website promotes an “Anti-Racism and Anti-Bias Advisory Committee” and Task Force. This Task Force’s job is to identify bias, racism, and inequity within the school district and recommend “solutions.” After they determined that the district’s staff was not diverse enough, they established a 10 percent diversity quota. Although the Task Force was originally created in 2020 as a six-month initiative, the hope was that the policies they put in place would have a lasting effect, meaning they eliminate racism—or the biggest problem: “whiteness.” In their 2020 report, a list of definitions includes the statement, “Whiteness gets in the way of our goals for educational equity and bias-free, anti-racist schools.” In other words, if you’re white, you are a problem. And the district plans to mandate other “anti-racism curriculum at all grade levels.” So apparently, even your six-year-old needs to understand how their “whiteness” is a barrier.
Kyrene School District in Tempe shares concerns similar to Flagstaff’s, namely the idea that even young kids are inherently racist, so they are kind enough to provide some helpful links on how to talk to kids about racism. The district hosts a whole page dedicated to “Equity in Education” and outlines its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The stated goal is to develop trainings for the purpose of “leveraging diversity” and promoting “cultural competency.” According to this page, inequity leads to opportunity and achievement gaps. Kyrene School District, which only consists of elementary and middle schools, is a textbook example of the toxic racist ideology Trump’s Executive Order is looking to quash.
The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) remains out of compliance with current federal law by maintaining an “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness (EDI)” page on their website. This shouldn’t surprise anyone given their longstanding history of thwarting anti-discrimination laws. Along with a DEI “Preamble,” their EDI page outlines a mission to pursue “desegregation” by eradicating the “manifestations of racism, discrimination, and prejudice.” This statement relates to TUSD’s mandated desegregation efforts from the 1970s ,which were only just deemed fulfilled in January of this year by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, releasing them from federal oversight. It would seem the district has exchanged one form of illegal discrimination for another.
At least these school districts were truthful in their refusal to certify compliance. Many that claim to be compliant are just lying. And this is only what can be found on their websites. If these districts are comfortable publicly advertising their illegal DEI pledges and racial quota programs, what more are they doing behind the scenes? These districts and schools need to be investigated and held to account.
Parents have been fighting these battles on their own for a long time, like the parents in Scottsdale and Deer Valley. The American people voted to stop progressive indoctrination in our public schools. That resistance will continue to happen until schools return to the pro-American, pro-Constitution institutions of edification they are designed to be.
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club will continue to actively monitor and report schools and districts to the Department of Justice for noncompliance with federal civil rights laws until all DEI programs are eliminated.
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by admin | Jul 15, 2025 | News and Updates, Regulatory
Attorney General Kris Mayes has long fancied herself as a champion for ratepayers. After another round of rate hikes rolled in at the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), this time a proposed 14% increase by both APS and TEP, AG Mayes fired off a press release announcing that she will “vigorously oppose” these requests as “Arizona residents struggle to keep up with ever-increasing electricity bills.”
Setting aside the fact that the AG has little purview over ACC affairs, Mayes seems to think that her own time serving on the Commission back in the 2000s makes her uniquely qualified to stop what seems like an endless barrage of double-digit rate hikes by our public utilities. Unfortunately for ratepayers, having Kris Mayes involved will only pour fuel on the Net Zero fire currently raging at the Corporation Commission.
You see, Kris Mayes is the one that laid the foundation for the Green Scam rate hikes Arizonans are suffering through today. In fact, the biggest irony about having Kris Mayes jump into the rate hike fray is that it highlights the dangerous parallels between the Commission she served on in 2006 and the one that we have today.
Kris Mayes was actually appointed to the Corporation Commission as a Republican (even if in name only) by then-Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano. Despite an all-Republican commission (as we have today), Mayes was the leading voice for the original Green New Deal mandate. That first mandate, the Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff (REST), required 15 percent of all energy generation to be from renewable sources by 2025.
To meet the costs associated with the REST rules, the utilities received cost recovery from ratepayers to pay for these projects that accrued in the hundreds of millions. In 2012, there was another APS rate hike to cover, in part, the buildout of solar facilities, battery storage pilots, and transmission upgrades due to increased costs of integrating intermittent renewables on the grid. By 2019, the price tag for Mayes’ REST rules exceeded $1 billion, all paid for with rate hikes and fixed charges.
After Mayes’ departure from the Commission, she went to work as a lobbyist and consultant for the Green New Deal cabal. She even chaired the “Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona” campaign in 2017, an initiative measure bankrolled by California billionaire Tom Steyer to insert a clean energy mandate in the constitution.
So, after two decades of fighting for grid-crushing renewable mandates, you would think Kris Mayes would be ecstatic at the news that both APS and TEP have embraced her green agenda and have committed to go Net Zero by 2050. It’s exactly what she wanted—a carbon-free grid dependent on wind and solar to keep our A/C units running in the middle of summer.
Mayes should also be thanking the current Republican-controlled Commission for doubling down on her radical energy commitments. Just last year, the ACC approved integrated resource plans developed by APS and TEP that turbocharged her REST rules, putting Arizona on the path to having 90% of future energy generation come from renewables while closing all remaining coal generation by 2031.
But now, the bill for the green scam is coming due, and Kris Mayes wants to feign outrage at the rate hikes needed to fund it. Her plan is to blame the utilities and the Corporation Commission for the projected $42 billion this radical energy transition will cost ratepayers, even though they are implementing the plan she originally put together.
The green energy experiment in Arizona was never going to be cheap. What’s truly ironic is watching its architects pretend to be surprised by the cost.
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Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
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by admin | Jul 1, 2025 | Misc, News and Updates
Among many issues, the past two elections have been a referendum on the public school system throughout our country. And that’s especially true here in Arizona. The people have shown that they are tired of the leftist indoctrination, wasted taxpayer dollars on declining test scores, attacks on parental rights, and more.
Immediately after his inauguration, President Trump proved that cleaning up our schools wasn’t just a campaign talking point. He issued an executive order (EO) ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling, and the U.S. Department of Education took action to eliminate harmful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It’s been a breath of fresh air, frankly, but the woke crazies in our state are not going down without a fight.
Back in February, a teacher at Marana High School was suspended after he challenged President Trump’s denial of the existence of more than two genders during a classroom lecture. Then, in May, an advocacy group released audio from inside a Catalina Foothills School District (CFSD) ninth grade health classroom where an alleged teacher gave a “lesson” on LGBTQ issues and criticized religious texts. What any of this has to do with “health” is beyond us, but it certainly shows the lengths these crazies are willing to go in order to push their radical message.
Not wanting to be outdone, Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) also decided to get into the mix. But instead of relying on leftist teachers to spearhead the work, the district itself adopted a curriculum that contains lessons on Black Lives Matter, January 6th, climate change, LGBTQ rights, illegal immigration, police brutality, and more. The move even prompted local law enforcement to push back, with one police officer association president sending a letter to SUSD asking them to reject the anti-police propaganda.
On top of all this, we’ve seen school districts like Deer Valley Unified School District buck at the Trump administration’s directive to end DEI. And there’s Kyrene School District, which voted to openly defy Trump’s guidance by adopting a policy that further embeds DEI into its day-to-day operations.
Clearly the left is undeterred in its efforts to use our K-12 system as a liberal indoctrination camp. And while President Trump’s efforts to fight back have been swift and bold, we can’t stop there.
Right now, it is critical for conservatives throughout our state to stay vigilant at both the state and local level. That means partnering with the Trump administration in identifying schools that are not in compliance with the president’s EOs. It means fighting back against leftist school boards looking to adopt radical curriculum and other woke policies. But most importantly, it means defending school choice at every turn against attacks from Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and the radical left.
Since then-Governor Doug Ducey signed universal school choice into law back in 2022, Arizona’s teachers’ unions, the radical left, and other anti-school choice groups have been doing everything they can to attack the popular program. When they began gathering signatures for a ballot initiative aimed at overturning Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA), conservatives met them every step of the way. When Hobbs came into legislative session in both 2023 and 2024 with her top priority being to regulate ESAs out of existence, conservatives fought back with only minor changes being made through the budget. And when the far left spent millions to push state legislature candidates with a long track record of being anti-school choice, conservatives mobilized and crushed them in the 2024 election.
We can’t sit back now and expect President Trump to solve all our problems. Over 85,000 students are currently enrolled in the ESA program. It continues to grow in popularity while serving as a model policy for states across the country. That’s why the left wants to tear it down.
Stay vigilant, conservatives. And remember, as the left continues to push its craziness on our students, they’re no match for us when we stand up, speak up, and fight back.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Jun 27, 2025 | News and Updates, Regulatory
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – On Tuesday, June 24, the Prescott City Council held another meeting to vote on the city’s proposed General Plan. This document contained various sections of woke policy such as Vision Zero, road diet language, and pushes for pricey, unreliable energy. Had it been approved, the City Council would have sent it to the ballot for an upcoming election.
However, the public made their voices heard during multiple meetings, urging the council to vote the plan down. The plan failed to obtain the required supermajority (five votes) for referral to the ballot. Prescott Mayor Phil Goode spoke out in strong opposition to the proposal which, as written, reflects policies that many fear could begin to turn Prescott into Los Angeles or San Francisco. The mayor, along with two other council members, heeded the calls from grassroots residents by voting against the original, problematic General Plan—and when a slightly revised version came up for a vote, it too failed, this time with four voting against and only three in favor.
Mylie Biggs, Associate of Government Affairs for the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, said, “This is a major win for the people of Prescott and the members of the Council that stood firm. Every other city in Arizona should be cautious of the language in their own General Plans and follow Prescott’s lead in rejecting wokeness in their cities.”
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Jun 24, 2025 | News and Updates, Regulatory
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) that passed the House of Representatives last month contained numerous wins for the American people: permanent tax relief, funding for border security, an expansion of Health Savings Accounts, and even a new program to expand school choice. But arguably the most impactful accomplishment in the BBB was their success in taking a machete to the labyrinth of green new scam tax subsidies created by Joe Biden and the Democrats through the inflation-creating Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). That alone makes it the most beautiful feature of the Big Beautiful Bill.
The House’s version included key provisions sunsetting some of the worst subsidies authorized under the IRA, including:
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- Ending the Clean Electricity Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for any project that doesn’t start within 60 days of the enacting legislation and isn’t in service by 2028;
- Ending the Clean Electricity Investment Credit and Transferability of Tax Credits for Wind and Solar;
- Eliminating the Tax Credit for Residential Solar and Rebates for “Green” Products;
- Repealing the Electric Vehicle Credit designed to Force Manufacturers to Abandon Gas Powered Vehicles.
The rollback of these subsidies in the House BBB was a monumental feat, especially given the army of lobbyists hired by the green energy grifters to defend these subsidies on Capitol Hill. In fact, the big spenders in the GOP caucus almost succeeded in stopping the subsidy rollback. If not for the stalwart efforts of the House Freedom Caucus and the White House stepping in at the last minute of negotiations, the green scam subsidies would not be on the chopping block.
But now the bill is in the Senate, and the initial draft released of the revised Big Beautiful Bill by Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo is anything but big or beautiful. As detailed by energy expert Alex Epstein, almost every IRA subsidy that was rolled back in the House is revived in the Senate version of the legislation.
The green energy lobby must be giddy. The Senate version reinstates subsidies for green energy suppliers, reopens loopholes such as the transferability of tax credits, and most importantly it eliminates the hard “placed in service” 2028 deadline for new projects, replacing it with a toothless “construction begins” deadline. Taken altogether, these changes would guarantee that these subsidies would continue long after Trump’s term ends in 2028. Which means all of these subsidies will be renewed at some point, and America will be stuck with Biden’s green new scam for decades to come.
The Senate’s resurrection of the Biden green subsidies in the BBB didn’t escape the attention of President Trump. “They are largely a giant SCAM. I would much prefer that this money be used somewhere else, including reductions. ‘Anywhere’ would be preferable!…None of it works without massive government subsidy (energy should NOT NEED SUBSIDY!).” As usual, Trump knows a Washington, D.C., grift when he sees it.
Additionally, Trump is correct that America’s energy development, production, and generation should never require subsidies. Yet over the last decade, wind and solar have consumed hundreds of billions in R&D refundable credits, loan guarantees, grants, and other subsidies. Just in the Inflation Reduction Act alone, $96.7 billion was earmarked for “clean” energy grants, mostly directed at solar and wind.
These IRA subsidies are why every major public utility in Arizona and across the country is adopting grid crushing resource plans that rely solely on wind, solar, and battery storage for new generation capacity. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said it best earlier this month while testifying to the House subcommittee on energy, “If you’re not there at peak demand, you’re just a parasite on the grid, because you just make the other sources turn up and down as you come and go.” Solar and wind alone can’t carry our grid, yet these subsidies drive out the very sources that solar and wind require to operate. One needs to look no further than Spain to see what happens when you try to power your economy on intermittent sources of energy.
America cannot afford to have our grid ruined because Republicans in Congress can’t say no to the green grift lobby. The current subsidies not only represent hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, but they are dangerous to the reliability of our nation’s grid. And anyone who cares about that should reach out to their representative to restore the big, beautiful end to green scam subsidies.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Jun 19, 2025 | News and Updates, Tax
Around the country, the “war on cars” has become apparent. From New York’s congestion pricing scheme to the onslaught of road diets and protected bike lanes to “reallocate” the public space away from cars, there is hardly anywhere you can travel without experiencing the increased hassle and cost of driving your personal vehicle.
Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse the woke transportation trends at the U.S. Department of Transportation under former Secretary Pete Buttigieg, many state and city governments remain committed to punishing drivers.
One specific tool being used to implement the anti-car, woke transportation agenda is vehicle mileage limits and taxes. For example, in Washington State, they passed a law that sets a target of reducing vehicle miles traveled per capita by 50% by 2050. Their department of transportation is empowered to create policies and strategies that would effectively force people to give up their cars. And of course, for our neighbors to the West, California lawmakers have proposed a mileage tax or “road charge” determined by how many miles a person drives in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and endlessly subsidize their failed transit system. Implementing this would require invasive measures such as reporting odometer readings or installing “special plug-in devices.” This kind of Orwellian intrusion on our freedom to travel privately has no place in any American city, even in California.
This week, Arizona legislative Republicans took a huge step to protect our state from these insane California-style, anti-car policies. With the passage of SCR1004 (the Freedom to Move Act), sponsored by Senator Jake Hoffman (Queen Creek), Arizona voters will decide in November 2026 whether to enshrine a first-in-the-nation constitutional protection against taxing, tracking, and limiting our vehicle miles traveled.
“The Arizona Free Enterprise Club has been fighting for the Freedom to Move Act since 2023,” said Scot Mussi, the Club’s President. “We are thrilled that our Republican-majority legislature chose to give voters the ability to protect their way of life by preserving our freedom to travel by personal vehicle in our state.”
President Trump and Secretary Duffy are doing critical work at the federal level to reverse the wokeness that has infected transportation policies and funding at the department and across the country. Now Arizona is leading the way on showing other states how they can pass their own protections for drivers and keep their states free too.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
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