Before Gov. Doug Ducey signed the new School Vouchers plan, a key lobbyist and architect of the expansion began making promises to strip limitations from the program.
It angered Republican State Senator Bob Worsley, who, under intense public scrutiny, shepherded the school vouchers measure through the House and Senate.
The key promise: A 30,000 cap limiting the number of children who may receive the vouchers over a six year span.
Lawmakers wanted to be certain the plan, diverting tax payer dollars from public school funding to charter and private school tuition, would not overwhelm Arizona’s budget.
As it went to the Governor for signature Thursday night, charter and private school supporters received an email from the bill’s original architect.
“Fifty years in the making, and tonight we closed the deal!” Darcy Olsen, with the conservative Goldwater Institute think tank, wrote. “There is a cap at 5,000 new kids per year; we will get it lifted. Thank you for the years of support that have made this victory possible.”
Worsley, one of the few Republican holdouts, said Olsen was involved with the talks as they promised a limit in order to persuade other lawmakers who were concerned about the cost.
“She was negotiating in bad faith with us,” he said. “I just think it's deplorable that she would put that in print.''
Worsley went on to make his own promise to voters, “All I can say is, that will not happen when I’m in the legislature.”
Though, he will have little to say in three years. Term limits restrict Worsley from running for his seat in 2020. If Gov. Ducey wins a second term, he will outlast him through 2022.
Ducey has already professed he’s a strong supporter of “school choice.” What’s more, he is also a strong supporter of The Goldwater Institute.
The think tank’s director was Ducey’s deputy chief of staff, it produced Ducey’s education policy, and its vice president of litigation is Ducey’s first pick for Arizona’s Supreme Court.
Opponents are worried the program will effectively gut Arizona’s already underfunded public school system.