Posted on by Californiacontrarian

A New Wave of Emigration?

Going all the way back to the Dust Bowl days California has been a magnet for immigrants – legal immigrants. However since 1990 The Golden State has lost some of its luster. According to the Manhattan Institute there has been a recent net migration of 3.4 million people out of California to other states. The reasons for this exodus are the usual suspects, as the Democratic hierarchy in the state government seems to be almost daring businesses to leave with high taxes, onerous regulation, high labor costs, etc.

Now there is a new theater opening down the street in Arizona which threatens to draw  more people away from this Democratic tragic-comedy, which is currently playing on the stage in California. This adjacent theater’s new production, “A Chance at a Good Education” is being produced by the Empowerment Scholarship Account program in Arizona. However, the latest wrinkle is that the “Actor’s Guild” known as “Save Our Schools Arizona” (SOSA- aka the Teachers’s Unions) has collected thousands of signatures in order to delay implementation of this new production. I wonder while they were collecting signatures, if SOSA used  their real slogan, “save our jobs in the public schools; the hell with the children!”?

Anyway the story line of this new production (now possibly delayed) goes something like this:

In Arizona parents who take their children out of public schools can receive money deposited into their own “education savings accounts”. This money can then be used for private school tuition and other school related expenses, like uniforms, tutoring, etc. Since 2011 this program had been limited to certain groups like special needs children and foster care children, but now has been expanded to all children in Arizona on a first come, first serve basis. The enrollment is now capped at about 5500 students per year and will expand over the next five years to include more than five times this number.

So while this is  good for the parents and their kids in Arizona, how does this affect California?

Follow me on this:

Let’s assume that I am a parent with young kids who in essence will be, or already are forced to attend a poor or even failing school here in California. I cannot afford the tuition at a private school and now I cannot afford the gas to drive them to another better, but more distant, public school.  As the legislature and their left-leaning judges here in California are failing to help my kids get a reasonable education, why should I not move to Arizona? Initially, as I establish residency in Arizona, my kids will go to their local public school, but then I will be eligible to enter the “lottery” for the education savings account money. What do I have to lose? My chances of finding work in Arizona are just as good, if not better than in California, as the unemployment rate is lower there. If I move my family to Arizona, at least my kids will have a chance.

So sayonara Golden State!

Is this a farfetched? Who knows . . . but if there seems to be more and more cars (many with U-Hauls attached) heading east on our highways, now you will know why.

 

 

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