Common Sense Institute Arizona

Common Sense Institute Arizona Common Sense Institute Arizona (CSI) is a non-partisan research organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of Arizona’s economy.

We believe sound fiscal and economic research is essential to uphold Arizona’s economic vitality, future, and individual opportunity. CSI Arizona is at the forefront of important discussions concerning the future of free enterprise in Arizona and aims to have an impact on the issues that matter most to Arizonans. CSI Arizona’s mission is to examine the fiscal impacts of policies, initiatives, and

proposed laws so that Arizonans are educated and informed on issues impacting their lives. CSI Arizona employs rigorous research techniques and dynamic modeling to evaluate the potential impact of these measures on the Arizona economy and individual opportunity. CSI Arizona is a sister organization of CSI Colorado. CSI was founded in 2010 originally as Common Sense Policy Roundtable in Denver, Colorado. CSI’s founders, a concerned group of business and community leaders observed divisive partisanship was overwhelming policymaking and believed that sound economic analysis could help Coloradans make fact-based and common sense decisions. CSI Colorado has spent the last decade at the intersection of state and national politics, and successfully provided facts to Coloradans to help make common sense decisions about policies that affect their everyday lives. Because of these successes, CSI Colorado is pleased to announce its expansion to Arizona in 2022. To learn more about CSI Colorado’s impact, visit: www.commonsenseinstituteco.org. To help the future of CSI Arizona, please consider becoming a member or a donor! Visit: www.commonsenseinstituteaz.org/donate-now

05/29/2026

Arizona’s housing crunch is getting worse.

In 2025, the state faced a shortage of nearly 56,000 housing units - that's up 5.1% from 2024. With vacancy rates falling and home construction slowing, supply still isn’t keeping up with demand. At the current pace of permitting, it would take more than 119 years to close the gap.

Learn more in CSI's report: https://bit.ly/4tkVLj5
Read the article: https://bit.ly/4aguckj

CSI’s initial 2026 Ballot Guide report finds Arizona’s ESA program already includes audits, spending rules, and accounta...
05/29/2026

CSI’s initial 2026 Ballot Guide report finds Arizona’s ESA program already includes audits, spending rules, and accountability safeguards. In a recent ADE random audit, just 1.9% of ESA spending was found to be “unallowable” — a lower rate than many other public programs. Private and homeschool students also perform better on the NAEP, ACT, and other standardized measures, and many participating schools already use nationally recognized curricula and accreditation standards.

At the same time, district-school students struggle with poor performance on state assessments:
➤ Just 39% proficient in reading
➤ 32% are proficient in math
➤ 27% proficient in science

CSI’s analysis highlights the importance of accountability and transparency throughout Arizona’s entire education system - traditional and new.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/493aurN

Arizona’s ESA program now serves 100,000+ students with $1.1B in annual scholarships. The proposed “Protect Education Ac...
05/27/2026

Arizona’s ESA program now serves 100,000+ students with $1.1B in annual scholarships. The proposed “Protect Education Act” would add income caps and new requirements that CSI estimates could immediately impact thousands of current ESA families, with more affected over time as incomes rise faster than the cap adjustment.

Universal ESA didn’t start Arizona’s school choice shift, it expanded on a trend families had already been driving for more than a decade.

Learn more in CSI's full report: https://bit.ly/493aurN
Read additional coverage: https://bit.ly/4v9Zn8Y

Arizona’s manufacturing sector continues to struggle.CSI Arizona’s latest jobs update finds the state lost:➤ 400 manufac...
05/26/2026

Arizona’s manufacturing sector continues to struggle.

CSI Arizona’s latest jobs update finds the state lost:
➤ 400 manufacturing jobs in April alone
➤ 500 manufacturing jobs year-over-year

Arizona was also one of 39 states reporting annual manufacturing job losses.

Learn more in CSI's full report: https://bit.ly/4v5IEDP

This Memorial Day, we honor and remember the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Their sacrifi...
05/25/2026

This Memorial Day, we honor and remember the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Their sacrifice made the freedoms and opportunities we enjoy possible.

Arizona added 8,100 jobs in April, but the bigger story is how flat the state’s labor market has become.After seven stra...
05/22/2026

Arizona added 8,100 jobs in April, but the bigger story is how flat the state’s labor market has become.

After seven straight months of year-over-year job losses, Arizona returned to positive annual growth but at just 0.41% — a sign the labor market may be stabilizing, but still remains unusually weak (as it has been for 2+ years).

Learn more: https://bit.ly/4v5IEDP

05/22/2026

How could the proposed income cap in the "Protect Education Act" impact Arizona families? CSI's new Ballot Guide report analyzes the immediate and long-term effects of this proposal if passed.

Director of Policy & Research, Glenn Farley breaks it down ⬇️

Read the full report: https://bit.ly/493aurN

Only 42% of Arizona households can afford a new mortgage today, down from 66% in 2019. CSI's latest housing affordabilit...
05/19/2026

Only 42% of Arizona households can afford a new mortgage today, down from 66% in 2019. CSI's latest housing affordability update shows just how much ground has been lost — and how much work remains.

Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/4dIadgB
CSI's Housing Update: https://bit.ly/4tkVLj5

CSI's first 2026 Ballot Guide report finds that district schools lost about 50,000 students after the pandemic. This was...
05/18/2026

CSI's first 2026 Ballot Guide report finds that district schools lost about 50,000 students after the pandemic. This was two years before universal ESAs– caused instead by disruptions to the classroom experience, poor standards and curriculum, and a long-term decline in student performance.

The report also estimates that the proposed “Protect Education Act” would immediately render an estimated 20,300 current ESA families ineligible and permanently exclude more than 400,000 Arizona school-aged children from ever accessing universal ESAs just because of family income.

Learn more in the full report: https://bit.ly/493aurN

Arizona's State Land Endowment Trust Fund just surpassed $10 billion for the first time — a historic milestone, but CSI'...
05/18/2026

Arizona's State Land Endowment Trust Fund just surpassed $10 billion for the first time — a historic milestone, but CSI's research suggests the fund could have been worth more than 16 times that amount had the land grant been managed differently.

Read the AZ Free News piece: https://bit.ly/4eUZpwR
Check out CSI's full analysis: https://bit.ly/4rpjFdR

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2801 E. Camelback Road Suite 29
Phoenix, AZ
85016

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