Education - recent views in Arizona

The February honors speaker, Arnold Kling will present an overview of competition in education. Two opposing views on this topic can be found in the January 28, 2013 Arizona Republic.

Arizona State Superintendent of Education John Huppenthal writes:

It was 1993 and my first year in the Arizona Senate. I was one of a handful of legislators who were enthusiastically committed to reforming education in Arizona.

We firmly believed that parents should have the right to choose the education environment that best suited the needs of their children. We shared a vision of a competitive school choice environment that would replace a one-size-fits-all, monolithic system that left many children behind.

http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20130124school-options-children-thrive.html

The opposing point of view by the establishment is presented by a member of the ASU education faculty:

It’s easy to understand why thousands of school-choice supporters from across the country are gathered in Phoenix for National School Choice Week. Arizona policy makers have steadily increased choice options for nearly 20 years, and today, Arizona parents have more publicly funded schooling choices than just about any other state.

However, what may get lost in the celebration this week is that after nearly two decades of expanding choice options in our state, traditional public schools continue to be the choice for nearly nine out of 10 Arizona students. Like my family, hundreds of thousands of Arizona families make the informed and conscious choice to send our children to our traditional public schools.

http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20130124traditional-public-school-legitimate.html