Arizona just expanded its Education Savings Account program. Jonathan Butcher of the Goldwater Institute explains:

I’m writing to share some great news with you—yesterday, Governor Brewer signed into law a bill that expands Arizona’s education savings account program to children entering kindergarten and increases funding for the accounts so parents can better meet their children’s unique needs.

Previously, children who met the eligibility requirements had to spend a year in traditional public school before they could apply for accounts. Thanks to today’s expansion, Arizona children will not have to spend a long nine months languishing in schools that don’t meet their needs.

With an education savings account, parents can use part of the money that otherwise would have been spent on a student in a traditional public school to pay for a variety of costs, including private school tuition, tutoring, educational therapy, and materials. Conceived of by the Goldwater Institute nearly a decade ago, education savings accounts were first passed by the Legislature in 2011 for special-needs children. Last year the program was expanded to children adopted out of the state foster system, children of active-duty military parents, and children in “D” and “F” failing schools.

Just last month, over 1,000 Arizona families applied for education savings accounts for the upcoming school-year. With the expansion of this program, over 216,000 Arizona families will be eligible for education savings accounts.

Earlier this year, Butcher explained to Carolina Journal Radio listeners why an ESA program would be a good idea for North Carolina.

You’ll find the transcript of that interview here and an excerpt from the interview below.