In Friday’s 5 Minutes for Families we told you that the U.S. Supreme Court was set to decide whether to hear an important school choice case that originated from Arizona’s tuition tax credit scholarship programs. Today, the highest court announced that it will hear arguments in the fall.

In Friday’s 5 Minutes for Families we told you that the U.S. Supreme Court was set to decide whether to hear an important school choice case that originated from Arizona’s tuition tax credit scholarship programs. Today, the highest court announced that it will hear arguments in the fall.

The court will be looking at last year's ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled Arizona's tax credit programs are unconstitutional because private citizens choose to donate more to religious tuition organizations than nonreligious ones. If you're scratching your head at that logic, you're not the only one.  

Make sure you read George Will’s column about why these programs are not only constitutional, but also beneficial to students.         

CAP and our school choice allies have led the charge to make sure these programs provide all Arizona parents with many strong options for their child’s education. We are confident that these programs will be upheld and that Arizona will continue to be a leader for school choice.  
 

Bill Title:
SB 1309 – Parental Rights

Bill Title:
SB 1309 – Parental Rights

What This Bill Does

• Protects parents’ fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children
• Requires parents to provide signed, written permission for their children to participate in sexual education classes
• Provides parents with notification when sexual materials are presented in a non-sex education course
• Allows parents to access all medical records for their children
• Requires authorities to notify parents if their child is the victim of a crime
• Notifies parents of their rights to review any materials taught in class
• Protects children from mental health screening performed outside of a doctor’s office without parental consent

What This Means For You:
SB 1309 recognizes and protects the central role of parents in their children’s lives and prohibits the government

Bill Titles:
SB 1304 – Abortion Reporting
SB 1305 – Ban on Tax Payer Funded Abortions
SB 1306 – Human Egg Provider Protection Act

Bill Titles:
SB 1304 – Abortion Reporting
SB 1305 – Ban on Tax Payer Funded Abortions
SB 1306 – Human Egg Provider Protection Act
SB 1307 – Human Embryo Ethics Act

What These Bills Do:

• Provide accurate, non-personal data on the number of abortions performed in Arizona, including demographic information, , the type of abortions performed, any complications encountered during or after the procedure, the gestational age of the preborn child and more.
• Opt Arizona out of providing abortion coverage in any insurance exchanges offered under the new federal health care law.  Arizona was the first in the nation to opt-out!
• Protect Arizona taxpayer dollars from being used for insurance coverage for elective abortions for government employees.
• Prohibit the sale of human eggs for research purposes and prohibit the sale of human embryos for any purpose.
• Protect human dignity by prohibiting human cloning, human embryonic stem cell research, and the creation of human-animal hybrids.

What These Bills Mean For You
These bills protect women and preborn children and recognize the basic human dignity of every person, including those at the earliest stages of development.  The bills place ethical boundaries on scientific experiments involving human embryos without interfering with legitimate medical research.  They also protect Arizonans from being forced to fund abortions through their tax dollars or insurance premiums under Obamacare. 

Bill Titles
HB 2663 – Corporate Scholarship Tax Credit Conforming
HB 2664 – Individual Scholarship Tax Credit Reform
SB 1274 – STOs; Contribution Date

Bill Titles
HB 2663 – Corporate Scholarship Tax Credit Conforming
HB 2664 – Individual Scholarship Tax Credit Reform
SB 1274 – STOs; Contribution Date
SB 1280 – University Scholarship Equity

What These Bills Do

• Create more transparency and accountability for school tuition organizations
• Enable taxpayers to make better informed decisions when donating to school tuition organizations
• Provide more opportunities for Arizona children to attend the schools that best meet their needs by extending the tax-credit donation deadline from December 31 to April 15.
• Require state universities to provide information on how scholarships are awarded to students from public, private, charter, and home schools.

What These Bills Mean For You
Arizona parents will continue to have school choice options as Arizona’s scholarship tax credit programs were improved and strengthened.  Arizona universities will also now report how scholarships are awarded to students to ensure that all students have fair and equitable access to scholarships.

Bill Title
HB 2238 – Child Prostitution

What This Bill Does

• Prohibits predators who engage in child prostitution from escaping punishment by claiming they did not know the age of the child

What This Means For You

Bill Title
HB 2238 – Child Prostitution

What This Bill Does

• Prohibits predators who engage in child prostitution from escaping punishment by claiming they did not know the age of the child

What This Means For You
Everyday, hundreds of children in Arizona wake up having to face the horrific reality of sex slavery.  This law strengthens our ability to protect and defend these kids.  A special thanks goes out to our local church partners and Streetlight for working along side us on this bill.

Bill Title
HB 2596 – Free Exercise of Religion

What This Bill Does

• Prevents the government from treating a religious organization differently than a non-religious organization in its zoning laws.

What This Means For You

Bill Title
HB 2596 – Free Exercise of Religion

What This Bill Does

• Prevents the government from treating a religious organization differently than a non-religious organization in its zoning laws.

What This Means For You
First Amendment freedom to gather and worship on private property is protected.  Government will not be allowed to discriminate against religious groups, and churches across the state can continue to grow in rural and urban areas alike without being singled out for negative treatment by local government officials.

Today marks the 58th offical National Day of Prayer.  As you take time today to pause and reflect upon God's amazing grace, perfect patience and redeeming love, we ask that you remember to lift up the leaders of this great country in prayer. 

Please pray for blessings, wisdom and protection for:

Barack Obama
President

John McCain
U.S. Senator

Jon Kyl
U.S. Senator

Jan Brewer
Arizona Governor

Today marks the 58th offical National Day of Prayer.  As you take time today to pause and reflect upon God's amazing grace, perfect patience and redeeming love, we ask that you remember to lift up the leaders of this great country in prayer. 

Please pray for blessings, wisdom and protection for:

Barack Obama
President

John McCain
U.S. Senator

Jon Kyl
U.S. Senator

Jan Brewer
Arizona Governor

You can use our Advocacy Action Center to find your US Congressman and State Legislators.

Branded and Streetlight are two ministries in Phoenix that are partnering together with churches across the Valley and the City of Phoenix Police Department to eradicate child sex slavery.  

Branded and Streetlight are two ministries in Phoenix that are partnering together with churches across the Valley and the City of Phoenix Police Department to eradicate child sex slavery.  

Next weekend you have three opportunities to be entertained at a clean comedy night where 100% of the $15 ticket price goes to support Branded and Streetlight.  

The city-wide events are being held at Bethany Bible Church, 6060 N. 7th Avenue in Phoenix, which is 1/2 block north of Bethany Home Road. 

The three show times are as follows:

• Friday, May 7th @ 7 PM
• Saturday, May 8th @ 5 PM
• Saturday, May 8th @ 8 PM

Tickets can be purchased with a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card by clicking here. You can also copy and paste the following the following link to order tickets:

Because of the nature of the causes being supported, it is not appropriate for young children.

We hope to see you there!  

If you've had the oppotunity to experience The Truth Project and want to lead a small group of your own, then join us this Saturday at Palmcroft Baptist Church for Truth Project Training.

If you've had the oppotunity to experience The Truth Project and want to lead a small group of your own, then join us this Saturday at Palmcroft Baptist Church for Truth Project Training.

Partner Training events are designed for those who are already committed to or interested in leading The Truth Project as a small group. This 4-hour training intensive will equip small group leaders to facilitate the DVD-based curriculum. Dr. Del Tackett is not the keynote speaker. Instead, Partner Training events are facilitated by Center for Arizona Policy. The agenda focuses on training and vision components, the role of a small group leader, the expectations of the small group, and a sampling of the curriculum via DVD.

What to Expect:
1. Training on how to facilitate The Truth Project small groups
2. A sampling of The Truth Project worldview content
3. Understanding the concept of worldview and its significance in life
4. Roles and expectations of a small group leader

Cost: $99 per individual or couple (Only one DVD set is provided per couple) Group Rate: Groups of 5 paid registrations or more pay only $89 each (Call CAP for group reservations)

Click here to register.

As of 4:30 p.m. on Thursday April 29, CAP has had quite the whirlwind legislative session.

While it is not over, most of our work is complete.  We are currently waiting at the legislature, as the hours of this legislative session are growing short. They intend to adjourn for the year either Thursday night or Monday.  

As of now, we have had quite the successful session for Arizona families. At this point, we have helped pass 11 bills to the Governor this year, with 4 of them already signed into law.    

As of 4:30 p.m. on Thursday April 29, CAP has had quite the whirlwind legislative session.

While it is not over, most of our work is complete.  We are currently waiting at the legislature, as the hours of this legislative session are growing short. They intend to adjourn for the year either Thursday night or Monday.  

As of now, we have had quite the successful session for Arizona families. At this point, we have helped pass 11 bills to the Governor this year, with 4 of them already signed into law.    

We will update you more later, but our two major bioethics bills will be sent to the Governor after today's vote in the Senate.  Late on Wednesday day, the legislature
also passed the two major school choice bills to the Governor.  

Visit our 2010 Bill Status Page to see the update on each bill from our 2010 Agenda.