Stacey Brown is first and foremost a homeschool mom. But educating her three children using the Empowerment Scholarship Account program propelled Brown to the grassroots — placing her at press conference podiums, public comment periods and lawmakers’ offices to offer her perspective. 

Now, as the Arizona Department of Education and the State Board of Education mull a new ESA handbook and the campaign for state superintendent of public instruction slowly takes shape, Brown reflects on the past, present and future of the state’s oftentimes contentious school choice program. 

How did you come to know about the Empowerment Scholarship Account program? 

We actually had legal guardianship over a child from foster care, and my husband and I decided to homeschool her. We pulled her out her second day of freshman year of high school. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. We’re like, alright, let’s explore. Let’s see what’s out there for you. And so we went ahead and homeschooled her, and then she graduated, and little did I know, she would have been eligible for an ESA program. 

That was a regret of mine, going back in life and thinking about this. I wish I knew about the program, but I didn’t even know that she would have been eligible, or that it existed.

In June 2022, I heard about this ESA universal law that was going to be passed. That started my interest. We’ve homeschooled for so many years. My husband is a public school teacher, so of course, we always want to support public school students and teachers, but in our realm, we also want to support homeschoolers and school choice options and private schools and online schools and all these things.

I reached out to some key people, and started some excellent relationships with them. All of us moms have a really strong relationship because we’re all in it for the same cause, which is our children and their children. And that’s just the bottom line. There’s a commonality between us. 

Did you always know you wanted to homeschool your children? 

I’ve always been a huge homeschool advocate, even before universal … I was never really 100% sure I was going to homeschool until our child of legal guardianship that we had through foster care. It was very evident that she needed to homeschool. She just needed to have options. 

We saw the success with her. We saw her mind shift from education is really boring, and it’s dry to it’s fun, and I can explore and learn all these different avenues. That shift in her made me really figure out and think it through. I really would like to see that shift in my children. 

What impacts have you seen from homeschooling? 

My oldest biological child had a severe speech delay to the point people couldn’t understand her. She would get frustrated with herself and just kind of start to quiet down when people couldn’t understand her, and she didn’t want to repeat herself over and over again. We brought her to the public schools to get her assessed. This was around preschool age, and they agreed. They said she has a severe speech impediment, but we’re not going to do anything for her speech impediment until third or fourth grade, because she doesn’t have any other cognitive delays. 

That’s a red flag for us. We were concerned. So we decided to homeschool her, and it just continued through the rest of our biological children, and we were able to get the needs that she had met. Just this past January, she read a little speech at a school choice event and was clear and was so proud of herself. She read another speech here at the Capitol the year before. 

She is 10 now. And to have those opportunities, that’s what ESA provided for her. She is in fourth grade now, and she would have either just been starting therapy this year, or have just started last year, so she would still be having that struggle. 

When did you feel a call to the grassroots to advocate for the ESA program? 

I had, for years, wondered why I was paying education tax dollars for my kids to have a public education, for it not to be used on them. I realized that there needs to be a holding cell right of funding case if my child goes to public school. I’m not arguing that, but what I am arguing is that we’re paying tax dollars for every single child, why not meet their educational needs where they are best met? 

What have been your biggest challenges as an ESA advocate from 2022 to now? 

My biggest battle that I’m continuing to fight is simply that this is not a voucher program. It is a scholarship program. There’s a huge difference. Vouchers are when checks are written directly to the parent. We do not get direct access to funding. This is not a program where I get a check and then I get to do whatever I want with it. 

What challenges do you think lie ahead for the program? 

I’m already looking at 2026 elections. We’re already concerned about having Superintendent (Tom) Horne run. I don’t personally feel as though he would win in this next election. 

My hope is to see him be replaced with a strong, solid school choice candidate and a strong, solid public school candidate. I would love to see both areas get the type of loving care that they need. 

And then here at the state level, we need to get this handbook done. I’ve been involved in meetings and speaking with legislators, and I know that legislators are pushing back on Tom Horne and trying to make this as lawful as possible while being polite, right? They are really doing their due diligence. And my hope is that we’ll come out of this with an excellent handbook that can stay for years to come. That’s the hope for everybody. 

What are the biggest points of misconception about the ESA program now? 

I love how Superintendent Horne uses these vasectomy kit examples, a $5,000 Rolex watch and this golf simulator. These things aren’t allowed by law anyways. So congratulations. Good job ADE. I think he should be congratulating his employees on catching it. 

What do you think about approved ESA purchases that may not seem educational? 

There are different scenarios here, and I’m not saying that every single purchase should be approved, right? That’s insane. But what I am saying is that these are children, real children with real needs. Oftentimes, students with disabilities and their education matters, and the whole point of ESA is to provide that flexibility for that child to be able to venture into the world, to be prepared.

Yes, a curriculum or an educational response can be made for almost any purchase. But those outlandish purchases are so far and few between. I’ve seen the list, okay, like it is literally 99.999999999% of purchases are all very reasonable.

How could the program be operating better? 

What could be better is looking at these price caps, right? We need to really ensure that we aren’t preventing children from getting educated. 

Honestly, the cap is the amount of funding that’s awarded to the child in their scholarship account. That is the cap. And I think that that is what the lawmakers intended at the very beginning. 

I think it will be interesting to see what the legislators decide with Horne. I know that there’s a lot of pressure on Horne. Legislators are really upset with how he’s handling it. And it’s a matter of parental rights. It’s a matter of educational freedom. We live in America. 

What might the average person not know about you? 

We have had 11 foster care kids come through our home. We mostly did sibling groups. I loved it. It was good. It was definitely an amazing learning experience for our family. 

We drive across the country every summer. My husband and I are trying to see all 50 states by the time we’re 50. After this summer, because we’re gonna get to North Dakota this summer, we’re going to have, I believe, only four more left. 

I’m super involved in my church. I homeschool. I live and breathe my children. I was telling my husband the other day. I’m like, when all the kids have graduated I’m gonna feel like my identity has been taken away, like I’m no longer a homeschool mom. It’s gonna be so sad. This is my identity. 

Given your work in school choice and policy advocacy, would you ever consider a run for office? 

I actually had people who were asking if I was running for SPI (superintendent of public instruction) many, many times. No, I am not. I am not running for SPI. It is not me for the record, but I would absolutely love, at some point, to look into that. 

I’ve had senators approach me and representatives approach me. I’ve had organizations approach me. The issue right now is I’m homeschooling my babies. I love my babies. So until then, I’ll just continue to be a loud voice and run around like a chicken with my head cut off.