You might want to pay attention to a bill that made it through the Arizona House, and the religious group with a lot to gain if the bill ever becomes law.
It’s not a big bill. All HB2266 does is change “may” to “shall.” Right now, school districts “may” decide to allow students to miss class for off-campus religious instruction. If the bill gets signed into law, district officials wouldn’t have a choice anymore. They’d be required to allow it.
Behind the scenes, LifeWise Academy — basically, a Sunday school that convenes during school hours, but off school campus — stands to reap the benefits.
Since the first two schools in Ohio started to participate in LifeWise in 2019, the program has grown to include 60,000 students in 32 states, the Ohio Capital Journal reports. Its goal is to get 100,000 students by the end of this year.
As enrollment goes up, so does revenue. LifeWise’s most recent tax returns show it brought in more than $39 million in fiscal 2025.
LifeWise Academy is on a mission to bring the Word of God to public schools.
And LifeWise spends a chunk of that money — $208,000 in fiscal 2025 — on lobbying. That’s helped them convince lawmakers in states like Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas to make the change from “may” to “shall.”
Now it’s Arizona’s turn.
Lifewise Academy is already active in several districts across the state, and Marana Unified School District is poised to be one of the next districts to join the LifeWise crowd.
MUSD officials say they aren’t formally considering the program. But if HB2266 ends up becoming law, they won’t have a choice in the matter, and neither would officials at Tucson Unified or any other school district in Southern Arizona.
All the cool kids are doing it
A lot of this situation came to light back in January, when the Arizona House Education Committee debated whether HB2266 would open the door to indoctrinating students and making life miserable for students who don’t participate.
Having LifeWise at your school creates a “division in the lunchrooms,” Jeanne Casteen of Secular AZ said at the hearing.
LifeWise is “indoctrinating students to think that their Catholic classmates are going to hell and are an abomination in the eyes of God,” she said. “This curriculum is telling students that if their parents are gay or divorced that they're going to hell, that LGBTQ students or their family members that identify that way are going to hell. So that's a pretty terrifying indoctrination to me. I would much prefer that I have those discussions with my child.”
The bill isn’t about indoctrination at all, according to the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. David Marshall, who also wants chaplains to be in public schools and said last year that “Jesus is a lot better than a psychologist.”
“This is optional. This is a choice that a parent and a child make. If that child wants to go to whatever church, whatever religious program, that's a choice. That's not indoctrination,” Marshall said.
Rep. David Marshall talks about his bill at an Arizona House Education Committee hearing in January.
Liz Easton, a board member at LifeWise Academy, made a similar argument.
The bill is a “positive step that reflects the state’s commitment to respecting religious liberty and the diverse needs of families. It allows parents to make an important choice about their children's education, whether or not to include religious education as part of their school day,” she said.
My First Pyramid Scheme
There are obviously a lot of ideological issues at play here, but it’s also about money.
Getting bodies out of the secular classroom and into LifeWise classrooms has proven profitable.
Fundraising starts from the bottom-up. Donors can sponsor students for $30 a month, or there is a spot on the LifeWise website to donate whatever amount you like. Plus, you can buy a LifeWise movie, a book written by the CEO, host assemblies … the list goes on.
LifeWise Academy students are excused from class to attend the religious program, which must assemble off of school grounds. But when those kids go back to school, recruiting other students is paramount.
“They incentivize kids with like, oh, you get a golden ticket,” Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez said on the Bill Buckmaster Show last Friday. “Don't you want to come join us? It's very cult-like behavior in my opinion.”
At least one Ohio parent was perturbed about LifeWise’s presence in her child’s school, the education publication The 74 Million reported last year. The mother found a written invitation from her son’s classmates inviting him to join LifeWise in his backpack.
“He hates getting these notes from his friends and having to tell them ‘No’ repeatedly,” she said. “Training kids to pressure their friends into religious activities while at public school, during school hours, crosses a line.”
Reporters with The 74 Million tracked down LifeWise Academy’s “Boosting Enrollment” tipsheet, which includes practices like asking school district staff to distribute LifeWise promotional materials and sharing electronic resources (like registration links).
Circling back to the Ohio parent’s concern, the LifeWise recruiting tip sheet also says:
“Send students back to school with ‘Invite a Friend’ flyers found in the template library to share with their friends; offer a treat or reward for bringing a friend; let kids share your program’s personalized business cards (order on the Storefront); provide LifeWise t-shirts to all students and encourage them to wear their shirts on LifeWise day.”
Wait, is this woke?
When you look through LifeWise’s instructional material — which is surprisingly hard to get your hands on — some of it sounds like the social emotional learning that usually raises the ire of conservatives.
We obtained a sample of LifeWise’s curriculum for elementary school students. The story of the Tower of Babel is hinged on the character trait: “HUMILITY – Refusing to think of myself as more important than I am.”
“One way to tell if we’re humble or proud is to look at how we treat other people. Being humble means that we show other people that we think they are important. How do people who think they are better than everybody else treat others?”
Good stuff.
But after that, any accusation of “wokeness” breaks down in a big way.
Former Fox News anchor and current Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth interviewed LifeWise founder Joel Penton in 2024.
We were able to find a copy of LifeWise Academy’s “Team Member Conduct” guidelines. Among those guidelines are remaining abstinent, unless you’re in a heterosexual, married relationship.
“Sexuality and Gender: We believe that God’s design for the gift of sex is for it to be exercised and enjoyed exclusively within the covenant relationship of marriage between one man and one woman. Additionally, a person’s sex has been given as a gift from God and should not be altered.”
And:
“Sanctity of Life: We believe that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image. Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death.”
The devil’s in the details
For readers who are really into education policy, here are a few tidbits about how LifeWise operates:
LifeWise teachers do not have to be certified, but degrees in education and theology are preferred, according to the company’s LinkedIn page.
LifeWise volunteers sometimes accompany students to the off-site LifeWise location; others work as assistants within the classroom.
LifeWise’s website states that teachers and volunteers go through background checks, though what those background checks look like isn’t specified.
LifeWise Academy programs are already active at public schools in Flagstaff and the Deer Valley Unified School District. There are several active efforts to gain approval in other districts, including in Sierra Vista and Casa Grande.
Marana Unified School District is at “Step 7” (out of 10 steps) per LifeWise’s step-by-step guide to bringing the religious academy to a school district. Lifewise has already received school approval (Step 6), according to the watchdog website respectpublicschools.com.
The watchdog group Respect Public Schools tracks which districts are getting closer to having LifeWise.
We reached out to MUSD with questions about when the district’s governing board discussed approving LifeWise, and what that discussion looked like.
“We do not have any Board action taking place with LifeWise,” a district spokesperson said. “There was some discussion, but activities related to LifeWise occur outside the school day and outside the purview of the school district.”
That only bred more questions. We followed up with MUSD on March 20, but have not received a response.
Judgment day
HB2266 already passed the state House, with no support from Democratic lawmakers, which includes most of Southern Arizona’s legislative delegation.
Now, it’s in the Senate, where Republican lawmakers also hold the majority. It didn’t get a hearing in the Senate Education Committee ahead of last week’s committee hearing deadline, so technically, it’s dead for the year.
But technicalities have never stopped lawmakers from bending the rules to bring a bill back to life.
Gutierrez said she has an idea of what would happen if lawmakers do successfully push the bill to Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk.
“I think it will pass out of the Senate and it will go to the governor's desk. And I'm fairly confident, although I do not speak for her, that Governor Hobbs will veto this bill.”
For the last 15 months, we’ve been publishing three weekly verticals covering education, water and AI policy in Arizona.
Now, we’re bringing that coverage into our main publications.
That means you’ll start seeing more dedicated stories on those topics in the Arizona Agenda and the Tucson Agenda.
Jessica Votipka, who previously covered education issues for the Daily Star, will be spending more of her focus covering local schools and education issues here in Tucson. (Like today’s edition!)
Arren Kimbel Sannitt, our water nerd, is relocating to Tucson for his PhD program at the UA, and he’ll be more tuned in to what’s happening locally, including writing dedicated water deep dives for us.
And Adi Jagannathan, our resident AI expert, will dip into Tucson’s wars over data centers.
As we fold more of that detailed policy coverage into our main publications, we’d love to hear from you about the education, water and AI themes you’d like to read more about here locally in Tucson.
Drop us a line at [email protected] or in the comments section.
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At least one wire service read past the typos and subtle hints that the story was a prank, and briefly ran the story about those aforementioned canals before realizing it was a joke.