Nation watches as Arizona’s universal ESA voucher fiasco fails

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.

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.