Arizona’s School Choice Victory and Government Transparency Efforts: Jonathan Williams on The Hugh Hewitt Show
"This is a major victory for Arizona and major victory for school choice in our movement across the country."
Hugh Hewitt spoke with ALEC President and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams about the recent win for school choice in Arizona and the ongoing effort to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs.
The conversation began with Hewitt discussing the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of maintaining education freedom programs by confirming that the signature counts submitted to repeal the program fell significantly short of the required amount. Williams praised the decision for its protection of one of the longest-standing and most effective education freedom programs across the states.
“The good guys won one this week in Arizona,” Williams emphasized. “This is a major victory for Arizona and major victory for school choice in our movement across the country.”
Hewitt highlighted that, out of 421,451 signatures submitted to repeal the program, more than 200,000 were found to be ineligible or duplicates. Williams mentioned that, going forward, it is best to carefully check signatures when it comes to these types of initiatives.
“This teaches all of us an important lesson as conservatives across the country: is check those signatures and make sure that there’s not a whole lot of funny business going on,” he remarked. “There clearly was in this case in Arizona.”
Hewitt then focused the conversation on the latest efforts to root out waste, fraud, and abuse across various government programs. Williams echoed those points and highlighted the need for efforts to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse through organizations like the OMB and task forces mentioned by Dr. Oz.
“The problem for Congress, of course, is so much of this is done on autopilot,” Williams remarked. “The efforts from the Trump administration of getting to waste, fraud, and abuse through the task force on fraud, Dr. Oz’s efforts, the work being done by Russ Vogt and the OMB is all very important, but we’ve got to tackle some of these big drivers.”