Dem. senator proposes bill to overturn federal school choice; advocates refute false claims

A Senate Democrat has proposed a bill to repeal the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, which passed in President Donald Trump’s budget bill last year.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, made numerous disputed claims in an op-ed announcing the Keep Public Funds in Public Schools Act, including the accusation that school choice is “busting our state budget” and forcing public schools to close.

Jenny Clark, a school choice advocate and former member of Arizona’s State Board of Education, called Kelly’s claims “completely embarrassing.”

“First of all, there was a surplus last year in the Department of Education, and the ESA program is only $7,500 per student, while Arizona public school students receive closer to $15,000 per student,” Clark said in a video posted to X. The education savings account program is 90% of state funding per public school pupil and does not include federal money, “so every time a kid goes on an ESA, taxpayers save, and the money for the ESA program was already part of the Arizona K-12 budget. There’s no budget busting here.”

Clark then addressed claims that students using Empowerment Scholarships to attend private schools are causing public schools to close. Data shows most students are transferring to other public schools, not private schools.

Kelly called the program a “failed experiment” that should not be taken national, but Clark cited its growth to more than 100,000 students, which “sounds wildly successful to me.”

Kelly also claimed “most working families aren’t benefiting and the program is a magnet for waste, fraud and abuse,” citing a news story that 20% of program spending is for unallowable purchases such as luxury goods. The figure is actually closer to 1%, and fraudulent users face consequences, making it more efficient than other government programs in the state.

Clark asked whether Kelly had seen “the Common Sense Institute report that showed that, based on ZIP code data, actually the majority of ESA parents are from middle-income households.”

“Guess he didn’t see that? Guess he didn’t bother to know about what’s actually happening in Arizona.”

Clark, who has children with special needs, also took issue with Kelly’s claim that students using school choice to attend private schools lose protections under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. While technically true, ESA participation among special needs students is about 19%, compared with 14% in public schools.

“Why do you think it’s 19%?” she asked. “Because those families are saying, ‘My kid is not getting what my child needs in the traditional system, so I don’t really care about IDEA, because my child’s not benefiting from it. I’m better off using an empowerment scholarship for my child.’”

Corey DeAngelis, another school choice advocate, called Kelly “a classic example of what drives these anti-school choice attacks.”

“He’s been endorsed and bankrolled by the teachers’ unions for years,” DeAngelis said in a message to The Lion. “The National Education Association funnels over 98% of its political contributions to Democrats, turning the Democratic Party into a wholly owned subsidiary of the teachers’ unions. That one-sided cash flow reeks of money laundering – government education dollars funneled straight back into protecting the monopoly. School choice threatens their power, plain and simple.”

DeAngelis also criticized Kelly for saying he is “a product of public schools” while sending his daughter, Claire, to The Gregory School, an expensive private academy in Tucson.

“He’s a hypocrite who exercised school choice for his own family while fighting tooth and nail to deny it to everyone else,” DeAngelis said. “The left isn’t afraid of ‘proven track record’ failures. They’re terrified parents will finally reclaim control of their own kids and escape the far-left indoctrination in the government school system.”

Kelly said his bill, which is “endorsed by more than 160 education and disability rights organizations,” would repeal the federal school choice program, which takes effect in January. Already, 29 states have opted in, making students in those states eligible to receive scholarships.

Many Democrat-led states are resisting or still considering whether to join the program, which can also help public school students with tutoring and other educational expenses. States that do not participate could leave as much as $23 billion on the table, one analysis found.

DeAngelis said Kelly and others are practicing “straightforward self-preservation.”

“They’re scared parents will pull their kids out of the government school system and escape the far-left indoctrination on gender, race and politics that’s been crammed down throats for years,” he said, calling Kelly’s op-ed “just the latest chapter in that protection racket.”

Kelly introduced the bill Tuesday. The Senate is closely divided between Republicans and Democrats, giving the measure little chance of passing. The midterm elections in November will decide control of the Senate in 2027 and 2028.