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It’s time for lawmakers to repeal unaccountable universal ESA vouchers — and it’s far past time to prioritize fully funding the community public schools on which the overwhelming majority of Arizona families depend. (Photo by Deposit Photos)
Universal ESA vouchers are already a dismal failure defunding our local public schools, threatening to bankrupt our state and raising red flags about taxpayer-funded discrimination. And the nation is watching as special interests rush to force through vouchers in other states before the cautionary tale of Arizona comes fully to light.
Universal vouchers threaten to bankrupt Arizona’s budget
Arizona’s newly enacted universal ESA vouchers are already blowing a massive crater in state coffers. When then Gov. Doug Ducey and the Republican-led legislature forced through universal vouchers during budget negotiations, public school advocates warned that the uncapped, unaccountable expansion would siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from local public schools.
Beth Lewis is director and co-founder of Save Our Schools Arizona (Photo by Kim Blake)
Lawmakers scorned these warnings, insisting the program would be thinly utilized with little impact on public school funding.
This year so far, universal ESA vouchers are poised to drain $350 million from our state general fund — enough to give every Arizona classroom teacher a $6,000 raise. And because the legislature myopically failed to appropriate any additional funding for the expansion, the program’s unbudgeted costs are driving our state into a gaping financial hole.
Who is using vouchers?
Make no mistake: the demand for universal ESA vouchers is not coming from low-income families, and there is no exodus from public schools. In fact, 80% of applications are for students already attending private school or homeschool whose families are eager to claim an annual taxpayer-funded subsidy of $7,000 per child. Arizona families are not exiting public schools — in fact, 92% of Arizona families proudly choose public schools, and we want our choice fully funded.
With 85,000 Arizona students in private schools and homeschools, it is likely that the ESA voucher program will cost well over $500 million this school year and reach $1 billion annually in a few short years. Because Republican lawmakers refused to cap or means-test vouchers, limitless funding can (and will) be stripped from Arizona’s public schools and siphoned to unregulated private schools that are in no way required to open their books to taxpayers. Taxpayer-funded private schools will legally be allowed to discriminate, teach any curriculum they wish, and cherry-pick the students they want. This isn’t “school choice,” it’s the school’s choice. And this isn’t “educational freedom,” it’s a perfect storm for fraud, abuse, segregation and scandal.
Where is the money going?
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne recently bragged that his team, which is responsible for overseeing the ESA voucher program, approved $22 million in reimbursements for 22,500 expenditures in a single day.
At that rate, it’s impossible to determine whether those funds were properly allocated. From tuition for indoctrination schools like Charlie Kirk’s new Turning Point Academy, to Amazon and Venmo payments for “educational expenses” like private tennis lessons, gourmet coffee machines, home gyms, and horseback riding, these reimbursements lack even the barest layer of accountability to taxpayers.
Meanwhile, Arizona’s public-school students go without desperately needed resources, teachers fund their classrooms out of their own pockets and PTOs fundraise for Kleenex and printer paper.
With Arizona languishing at 47th in the nation in per-student spending, the idea of draining hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to unaccountable private, for-profit pockets should be anathema.
Reverse universal vouchers — before it’s too late
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has called upon the legislature to reverse this fiscally irresponsible program and prioritize funding public schools, as is their Constitutional duty.
While the legislature should be scrambling to reverse or significantly cap universal vouchers, Republican lawmakers are instead doubling down on ridiculous culture wars, determined to further regulate public schools by mandating pronouns and eradicating nonexistent CRT.
It’s time for lawmakers to repeal unaccountable universal ESA vouchers — and it’s far past time to prioritize fully funding the community public schools on which the overwhelming majority of Arizona families depend.
Beth Lewis is director and co-founder of Save Our Schools Arizona.
Your Biden et al waste money and AZ public schools indoctrinate children into total moral corruption – and you are doing it with our hard earned taxpayer money. If the liberals du jour are not totalitarian fascists, then why wouldn’t they support a measure that allows for plurality in todays single view education, a measure such as ESA? And why does this newspaper call a school of an alternative ideology “an indoctrination school”? Define indoctrination. Is it “anything that a liberal disagrees with”? Or anything that there likes of Mr. Soros or Claus Schwab or another high power fraction or individual would disagree with? How’s that not fascism?
The United States allows all children free public education. Republicans seem hell-bent in Arizona to eliminate public education and provide Vouchers worth $7000 to private schools or any home without any accountability. Heck, you could put those funds in the lottery and hope for a win! Public school teachers in Arizona are not given allowances for classroom supplies. The Republicans should then fund classroom teachers out of their own pockets. This is ridiculous and a waste of resources and financial support.
Maybe ESA needs some regulation. But don’t start on this mandating pronouns garbage. The Democrats and radical left educators are the ones pushing using the “appropriate” pronouns or face punishment. And CRT is being pushed by the same radical teachers that think there are 72 genders and every other child needs to recognize that or be ostracized.
While I am a full supporter of funding public schools and teachers (not the administrations as they make enough at this point), I am a left leaning mother of 5 living in a state that is 47th in the nation in education and I fully rely on those educational funds to help my children get ahead in an ever-changing world. Arizona is stuck in the stone ages. I live in rural Cochise County. Would you prefer that my children suffer one poor public school or charter school. I do not use the private schools as most charge in a quarter more than what I get in ESA funding for one child. We have the freedom as parents to choose within reason what we spend with the ESA funding. I didn’t take away from the public school system, but rather took away my pupil and the money that would follow them anywhere they went anyway. I will not feel bad for educating my child as I see fit. There is more time for learning the basics as well as expanding our education to things such as life skills, which they won’t get at any public school. My husband is retired, and we are both disabled veterans. Most days I can’t even leave my house due to my own disabilities. But I can manage to sit with my children and do all of the necessary learning. I also have children with learning disabilities. Maybe instead of fighting the ESA program which only covers approximately 43,000 homeschooling families, fight for teacher raises through other means. I will always support public school, but I will not give up my ESA funds to teach my children the way they should have been from the beginning.
I AGREE COMPLETELY WITH THE ANALYSIS THAT INDICATES THE NOT SO SUBTLE ATTACK ON THE TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. IT IS AN EFFECTIVE SYSTEM THAT , LIKE ANY ORGANIC ENTITY, CAN BE PRUNED, REFRAMED, ADJUSTED TO MEET DEVELOPING NEEDS OF THE STUDENT, PARENT AND COMMUNITY .
THE SCHOOL VOUCHER SYSTEM IS A SYSTEM THAT REWARDS THE PRIVILAGED AND PUNISHES THE POOR. THIS IS NOT A RECENTLY DEVELOPED SYSTEM , IT IS JUST MORE SHAMELESS IN IT’S PRESENT FORM. FROM SEGRETATED SCHOOLS TO WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY IN EDUCATION IS THE SAME HORSE , JUST OF A DIFFERENT COLOR.
THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING OUR YOUTH IS AN HONORABLOE AND DEMANDING PROFESSION AND THUS THE EMPHASIS SHOULD BE TO GIVE THEM A SALARY THAT ACKNOWLEDGES THIS FAITH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM AND THE MATERIALS AND TEACHING EMVIRONMENT THAT ALSO ACKNOWLEDGES THE TEACHERS DEDICATION TO TEACHING OUR CHILDREN WELL.
All of you folks supporting the ESA need to read this book:
Democracy in Chains, it sets forth a lot of what the right wing wants to do – destroy government schools. Stop reading and listening to conservative infomercials, go into your schools and watch the teachers try to do their jobs. Essentially, the GOP strategy – over regulate, under fund, then claim the government schools are failing. I know, because they did this in Texas. ESAs are a proposal coming out of the far right leaning ALEC. They are designed for one thing only – to destroy public schools. This is not now, nor has ever been about educating kids, just look at the crazy things about CRT(actual history), the enemy of gay and transgender, sex education (the right wanted the schools to fix years ago) and much, much more.
Anyone who thinks there’s no regulation on funds hasn’t actually looked into the program and bought into the media twisting.
It’s not a voucher program. There are lots of rules to follow to use the funds like curriculum requirements, limits on what the funds are used for – even things that are available in public schools are being denied. All items are reviewed by both esa staff and audited by the az department of education. Any misuse of funds has to be paid back and they can lose thier scholarship composure.
The parent handbook is readily availabie to anyone. Do better at understanding the truth of the program and the benefits it brings to children’s education.