I spent over an hour on the phone with @JenBerryHawes explaining that IDEA only gives access to a SWD's zoned district school (no open enrollment), that for decades families of SWD had often pulled a mistreated child out of their zoned public school to home-school them with zero assistance whatsoever out of pure desperation. Oh and that the ESA program in AZ enrolls a higher percentage of SWD than the AZ public schools-19% vs. 14%. Also I think I explained that AZ public schools shamelessly discriminate against students with disabilities in open enrollment. Oh also that ESAs give families options outside of attending private schools-that we have families in AZ for instance teaming up to hire their own teachers, that if they do do multivendor education that they would at least have resources to help them do it. ESAs are more than vouchers. I mentioned that if what she wanted to do was to write a story of families complaining about not finding a spot in a private school, she could write that story, but it would be a huge oversimplification of a complex reality- ESAs are an incredibly useful innovation for many families of students with disabilities, but do not alone dry every tear or cure the world's pain. They also don't harm anyone- districts have complained about not getting enough SPED $ for decades- so if a kid leaves with their share they can either spend more on the remaining kids, or do less of an xfer from gen ed to sped ed. Districts win either way, so long as the $ story they have been telling for 50 years is true. Sometimes journalists seem to struggle with fitting a complex "this makes the world better but not perfect" narrative into a superhero versus supervillain comic book framework. I may have missed it, but none of the above information seemed to make it into the story, which instead went with the standard "GRRRRRR school choice STRONG BAD!!!!" predetermined narrative. JBH did not ask me about the "toe hold" strategy also included in her story, but if she had, I would have noted that whether or not legislatures take any further action on choice is entirely up to the normal democratic process. Mississippi for instance passed an ESA for SWD about a decade ago but to date has taken no further action on private choice in the state. Others may choose to do the same in the future. That's democracy for you, imo. ESAs for SWD stand on their own merits regardless. propublica.org/article/schoo… @HeritageOnEd @JasonBedrick @RobertEnlow @RonMatus1 @ClarkRimsza @jandrewclark @AdamPeshek @propublica @KathyVisser1 @LevesquePat @alexanderrusso @JebBush @rickhess99 @MrDanielBuck