Goldwater Institute

Six years ago, Arizona policymakers created a revolutionary school choice program by allowing a $500 dollar-for-dollar income tax credit for contributions to organizations that give students scholarships to attend private elementary and secondary schools. In 2001, the Cato Institute published a study evaluating the first years of the program and analyzing its potential impact. This paper is a follow-up to that study, assessing the recent trends in the program, its impact on Arizona's educational system, and identifying potential reforms.

According to Valley Metro's own projections, the light rail project proposed by the Maricopa Association of Governments will be inefficient in its use of public resources, ineffective at reducing traffic congestion and pollution, and unfair to county taxpayers. The county plans to spend $2.2 billion on light rail, an amount equivalent to one-third of the state's entire general fund budget. If legislators do not re-examine the county's numbers, they may make a mistake of gigantic proportions.

In Arizona, occupational licensing requirements and regulations stifle competition, diminish quality of service, and drive up prices. Thousands of laws restrict entry into occupations for persons wishing to serve consumers as cosmetologists, barbers, African hairbraiders, taxicab drivers and street vendors. State agencies and occupational licensing boards act as gatekeepers, restricting competition and ensnaring entrepreneurs in thick layers of red tape.

Arizona Law prohibits out-of-state wineries from shipping wine directly to Arizona consumers, with few exceptions. A vestige of Prohibition, Arizona statutes require out-of-state wineries to sell their products to licensed wholesalers (tier 1), who then sell to retailers (tier 2), who select which beverages will be available to consumers (tier 3). It is illegal for an out-of-state producer to bypass the wholesaler. This antiquated three-tiered distribution system grants undue power to wholesalers, drives up the price of wine by forcing the product through a middleman, and reduces choices available to consumers.

In March, the Goldwater Institute released Race and Disability: Racial Bias in Arizona Special Education, which found that predominantly white Arizona school districts labeled significantly higher percentages of minority students as disabled than did minority school districts. Using 2000-2001 data, the study showed that school districts with predominantly white student bodies had Hispanic disability rates that were 47 percent higher than the Hispanic disability rates in predominantly minority districts. The study posited several possible explanations for this pattern, including perverse financial incentives, segregationist impulses, and desire on the part of districts to inflate standardized test results.