An elementary school principal who quit her job to home-school her three kids last year praised the benefits of home education and child-led learning. Arizona homeschooling parents are accusing the state of imposing burdensome regulations on families after Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes cracked down on the state's voucher program requirements this summer. Homeschooling moms Velia Aguirre and Rosemary McAtee are plaintiffs in a new lawsuit , filed by The Goldwater Institute, against the state of Arizona, Arizona Department of Education and Superintendent Thomas Horne.
Aguirre and McAtee participate in the school's Empowerment Scholarship Account "ESA," which gives homeschooling families 90% of state taxpayer dollars that would otherwise go to the public school district or charter schools to purchase educational materials, including books and supplemental materials, for their children's schooling. The suit alleges that in July, AG Mayes issued "legal threats" to the Department of Education to make sure every ESA purchase had a curriculum tied to it. Goldwater says that the education department is now rejecting reimbursement requests from ESA families for the purchase of "basic educational materials," including things like pencils and erasers, "unless parents could provide an explicit ‘curricular’ document justifying the use of each specific book title or material for their child.
" "It's very hard. Because I'm spending several hours a week developing curriculum for t.