Bipartisan house leaders form ESA study committee

House leadership agreed to form an Empowerment Scholarship Account Governance and Oversight Committee today to look at the administration of the state’s fast-growing school choice program. 

Democrats failed to pass budget amendments in both chambers to cap off universal ESA enrollment, which remained a central budget request among legislators, public education advocates and some families of students with disabilities enrolled in the program. 

The formation of a committee came alongside a provision in the budget requiring quarterly reports on enrollment in ESA to be sent to the governor’s office, Senate President, Speaker of the House and to the director of Joint Legislative Budget Committee. 

The Arizona Department of Education already submits quarterly reports to the State Board of Education, though the requirement added some expanded reporting on expenses aggregated by eligibility category and enrollee zip codes and English language learners. 

Gov. Katie Hobbs heralded the budget as it “creates critical new ESA accountability measures.” 

But Democrats, public education advocates and families of students with disabilities enrolled in the program still have concerns about the true scope of future oversight and potential for change. 

The committee’s purpose is to gather information from experts, parents and the public about appropriate oversight and governance for the administration of the ESA program and is tasked with publishing a report on their findings before December 31, 2023.  

The committee will be made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, with a chair designated by House Speaker Ben Toma.  

Hobbs and Superintendent Tom Horne are also slated spots on the committee as well as two public members, one with extensive experience in school choice laws, policies and procedures and one with extensive experience in special education laws, policies and procedures. 

Kathy Boltz, a member of the Arizona Coalition of Parents for Equal Student Access, a parent group of parents of students with disabilities enrolled in ESA, expressed doubts in the committee’s ability to move the needle on changes in the program.  

“The Republicans set [the ESA program] up,” Boltz said. “Are they really going to clean it up?” 

Boltz also pointed to another committee established by a law passed in last year’s K-12 budget, which created an ESA Parent Oversight Committee to include members appointed by the Senate President, Speaker of the House, minority leaders of both the House and the Senate and two members appointed by the governor.  

The committee is charged with meeting each quarter to review whether the program’s policies and procedures were effective as well as the concerns of ESA parents and the work of the ombudsman-citizens aide on complaints over the administration the Arizona ESAs.  

But the positions still remain vacant.  

Sen. Mitzi Epstein, Senate minority leader, gave her final remarks on the budget this morning, lamenting the lack of cap on ESAs but hoping for some further change in the future.  

‘Instead of sensible guardrails on ESA expansion, we got essentially a study committee,” Epstein said. “It will have to do … This in combination with accountability metrics might lead to a better solution in the coming months.”   

In approving the ad hoc committee, House Speaker Ben Toma said it would be “disingenuous” to criticize the program in this year’s budget given the universal program’s recent rollout.  

And he backed the expansion and subsequent spending, citing the 55,000 families who “chose this option as the best fit for their children.” 

“I trust parents,” Toma said.