The Parent Power Index from the Center for Education Reform (CER) ranked Arizona as the second-best state in the country for parental control over education. Florida beat Arizona out for the top spot, and both states were the only two states to receive “A” grades.
CER said, “Arizona, holding strong at 2nd with an A-, continues to blaze trails in education freedom. Universal ESAs and a thriving charter sector make the Grand Canyon State a beacon for personalized learning nationwide.”
The state also ranked high in other categories. Arizona achieved a perfect score from CER for transparency and ranked second after Florida for both charter schools and school choice. It ranked fourth for transformational learning and the 75th percentile for both leadership and constitutional issues. The state scored a zero, however, for teacher quality.
Arizona was also somewhat comparable to the Sunshine State for student achievement. Arizona’s graduation rate is 77.5 percent compared to Florida’s 88 percent. Reading proficiency in 8th grade is at 28 percent in Arizona, compared to 25 percent in Florida.
Arizona beat out Democratic-controlled states in many areas. For example, numerous Democratic states scored an “F” for parental control over education. Michigan’s reading proficiency rate for 8th graders is only 25 percent, whereas Maine scored 26 percent for 8th grade proficiency, and Oregon scored 27 percent.
The figures don’t include private school or homeschooling metrics, as those are not required to be publicly reported. Since these schools tend to have very high proficiency rates and graduation rates, the metrics aren’t very reflective of students overall in each state.
While charter school achievement is often included in public school metrics, Arizona’s charter schools, standing alone, perform almost as well as any in the nation. An analysis by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, better known as the Nation’s Report Card, found in 2022 that if Arizona 8th grade charter school students were a separate state, they would rank first nationally in math and second in reading, only behind New Jersey. Arizona has the second-highest charter school enrollment in the state, at 20 percent of students.
Arizona spends the third least amount of taxpayer funds on K-12 schools, yet still achieves average to high scores in most areas of education. Similarly, the states that spend even less, Idaho and Utah, also have relatively high education success rates.
Census figures from 2022 reveal that New York spends the most, $29,873 per pupil, almost three times more than Arizona. However, New York was rated a “D” for parental control over education. Its student proficiency was only slightly higher than Arizona’s, with a graduation rate of 82.6 percent and 8th grade proficiency at 31 percent.
New York scored lower than Arizona in numerous areas. CER rated the state 82 percent for charter schools, 50 percent for school choice, and 72 percent for transformational learning. It gave New York 50 percent for leadership, 50 percent for transparency, 75 percent for constitutional issues, and zero for teacher quality.
The Stanford Educational Opportunity Project analyzed academic progress in schools across the country from 2008 to 2018 and found that Arizona beat out all the other states.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
