By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

PHOENIX – When Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed legislation last month that would have expanded the state’s school voucher program, she told the media she might reconsider the decision after the budget process.

Apparently the governor meant what she said. On Monday she signed legislation that will expand access to the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Program to children stuck in failing schools, the children of active military personnel and foster children.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

Currently the program only provides vouchers to special needs children.

The program gives parents 90 percent of their child’s state funding to use toward private school tuition, online courses, tutoring services, textbooks, and future college expenses, according to a news release from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.

While we’re unsure what convinced Brewer to reconsider her veto, her signature on the legislation demonstrates that she sees the value in providing Arizona families with an array of educational options. Families across the country are demanding more school choice, and Arizona’s voucher expansion is a significant step forward.

The expansion will dramatically increase the number of students who qualify for vouchers from roughly 125,000 to more than 230,000, according to the Goldwater Institute, an Arizona think tank.

And the families of those children will not have to meet income requirements, according to the Friedman Foundation.

“For decades, members of the armed forces have benefited from the GI Bill in higher education, and to give similar freedom to their children in K-12 education is the right move,” said Robert Enlow, Friedman Foundation president. “Military members nationwide, and all families for that matter, deserve the ability to choose the schools, public or private, that work best for their children.”