Learn how education choice is working in Arizona!
Listen to these moms talk about how education freedom is helping their children succeed.
Arizona families have the most freedom in the nation to choose the best school for their children, and that freedom is enabling more children to obtain a great education. The facts are clear: when families can choose the best school for their children regardless of income, all children succeed.
- Arizona has five of the top seven schools in America, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 national rankings.1
- Arizona is the only state to show significant progress in 4th and 8th grade math, science, and reading between 2009 and 2015, according to the nation’s report card.2
- Arizona charter schools, which primarily serve minority students, are among the best in the country.3
Whether public, private, charter, or home school is best for a child, Arizona offers families the most opportunity for educational success.
Arizona Families Have the Most Choices for Their Children’s Education!
Arizona offers families a wide menu of options to find the school that is best for their children’s unique learning needs. Whether a family is considering public, charter, private, or home schooling, Arizona is making it easier for their children to achieve educational success.
You can read below about the many forms of educational freedom that Arizona offers students.
Public School Educational Freedom
- Arizona Open Enrollment: Arizona families are not limited to the public school in their school district, but can apply to attend any public school, based on available space.4
- Arizona Online Education: Arizona students can take classes and study topics that may not be available in their school thanks to online learning. Over 40 approved online schools and programs give students the opportunity to learn via computer-assisted learning platforms and virtual schools.5
Charter School Educational Freedom
Arizona’s 556 charters serve over 185,000 students with innovative curriculums while being held to high academic standards. The success of Arizona’s charter schools is evident in the “nation’s report card”, which found that Arizona charter schools had the highest gains in the nation in math and reading.6
Natalee’s educational success: Natalee’s mom was worried about her academics. That all changed when Natalee attended Painted Rock Academy, a charter school, and significantly improved her studies. Now, Natalee is performing better in math than many of her peers, and she hopes to become a teacher one day.
Private School Educational Freedom
In Arizona, unlike most other states, attending a private school isn’t limited to families with higher incomes. A variety of policies empower middle and low-income families to enroll their children in a private school.
- Student Tuition Organizations: low-income, special needs, and foster children are eligible to receive scholarships funded by a tax credit for contributions from individuals and businesses. These STOs help children attend schools that their parents would not otherwise be able to afford.7
- Empowerment Scholarship Accounts: Following the expansion of this program in 2017, nearly all of Arizona’s K–12 students will eventually be eligible to receive 90% of the funding that would have been received by the school they previously attended and can use it to pay for curriculum, tutoring, educational therapy, and tuition at a private school. Low-income families are eligible to receive 100% of the funding that would go to their local public district school.8
Addison’s future: Lanae saw her son struggle at the local district school. She hopes to use the Empowerment Scholarship Account program so her daughter Addison can instead attend a private school when she enters the first grade.
Home School Educational Freedom
Arizona law allows families to educate their children at home and those children are welcome to participate in local public school activities, attend Arizona’s institutes of higher learning, and apply for merit-based scholarships.9
Arizona’s extensive educational freedom policies make it possible for more children to find the instruction, curriculum, and learning style that is best for them – regardless of their family’s income or the neighborhood in which they live.
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