Latino Families Turn to the Media in Their Fight for School Choice

A Telemundo reporter researching the current fight to expand Arizona’s education savings accounts as an option for every child, was recently invited into the homes of two Arizona Latino families. One home was of a mother who is using school choice. The second home, a family who needs school choice. Here’s what the reporter saw for herself.
Ramona Carrasco has a child with Down syndrome. Because of that challenge, her daughter Byanca is eligible to use Arizona’s education savings account program called Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). Since Byanca entered the ESA program, she has learned to speak. Before, she could only grunt. At her new school, Byanca learned how to make friends. Before, she would play at recess by herself. Byanca is now excelling in her spelling. Before, she couldn’t read or write.
Maria Azucena also invited Telemundo into her home, a small low-income apartment in Phoenix. This mother was devastated to find out that the ESA expansion was put on hold. She had already enrolled her children in a private school and was waiting to get an ESA to pay the tuition. She expressed her stress and worry to the reporter. The children are attending their new private school for free right now on the hopes that the ESA expansion will be implemented soon. However, the reality is that if the ESA expansion does not go through, she will have to put her kids back in the public school she was trying to escape.
The reporter was able to see school choice in action in one home and the struggle of a mother who needs school choice in another home. Brave, low-income, minority parents are mobilizing in Arizona to fight for educational freedom. They are forcing the media to hear their stories.