Weiers, Horne find winning combo for students

House Speaker Jim Weiers never gave up, and now 300 Arizona students will continue to attend schools of their choice instead of being summarily dumped back into a public campus that might be unprepared to handle their special needs.

As Capitol Media Services reported Friday, Weiers and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne finally found a way to keep funding two private school vouchers programs designed to serve disabled students and children in state foster care. The Legislature and Gov. Janet Napolitano eliminated $5 million in funds to help balance the state budget after it appeared the courts had barred the programs as unconstitutional.

But this swing of the budget ax turned out to be premature as the state Supreme Court said the programs can continue to function — at least until the highest state court reaches its own conclusions about the legality of these vouchers.

That prompted Weiers to offer to replace the funding from $9 million that the House has stockpiled in the past few years. But state Attorney General Terry Goddard said that would be illegal unless Weiers received approval from the entire Legislature. So Weiers asked the governor to call a special session to get that approval, but she rejected the idea.

Now, Horne and Weiers say they have legally shifted funds around in a state education budget that approaches $4 billion to put $5 million into the voucher programs. Assuming they didn’t miss anything, Weiers deserves praise for his persistence and Horne should be recognized for his flexibility.

We still believe voters ultimately will need to change the state constitution to clearly allow private school vouchers. But we never wanted the state to needlessly deny aid to students who could be served by the current programs. As long as the high court doesn’t intervene, the education of these students shouldn’t be a victim of Capitol politics.