Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program has now administered over 100,000 vouchers to help fund private and homeschooled students. This comes as public school advocates promote a ballot initiative to reform the voucher system and hold private schools to higher standards.
Three years ago, before Tom Horne was reelected as state superintendent, ESA vouchers were directed only toward children with special needs. They served about 11,000 students.
Today, students with disabilities make up less than one-fifth of all ESA recipients in the state. That’s because in 2022, under Gov. Doug Ducey, the program became universal, making it available to any Arizona family regardless of their needs.
Having grown nearly tenfold, the universal program is costing about $1 billion out of the Arizona General Fund this year: money that, critics say, could be used instead to improve the public school system. Almost 50% — or $7.7 billion — of the state General Fund is allocated for K-12 education.
Superintendent Horne, a Republican, told AZPM that support for vouchers should be universal.
“I can't understand how anybody thinks that the parent doesn't have a right to do that unless they're so immersed in ideology that they miss out on the needs of the students,” Horne said.
Those funds haven’t all gone towards the needs of students, however, and many critics say the system is draining money from public schools.
How are public school districts affected?
“The way that I like to talk about it is looking at the opportunity cost. What are we giving up by sending all of this money to the ESA voucher program?” said Tyler Kowch with Save our Schools Arizona, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for fully funded public schools.
Kowch said that because funding for ESAs comes from the same pool as funding for public schools, it’s difficult for public districts to maintain their operations and staffing costs with dwindling per-pupil funding from the state.
“I think a great example is the Amphitheater School District, which just voted to close four schools to save about $5 million. Meanwhile, there's more than $14 million going towards vouchers within that school district,” Kowch said.
That’s according to 2024 data from the state education board, which hasn’t put out a report since then. The executive and legislative reports, which are updated, only provide zip-code-specific information on voucher enrollment, rather than district-specific.
For Pima County’s largest school district, Tucson Unified, $37 million of potential district funds were directed to ESAs in 2024.
Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said that while TUSD is not considering school closures this year or the next, the conversation is imminent.
He said the ESA program has “damaging and destructive” effects.
“I would wholeheartedly agree that is taking a huge bite out of TUSD and the potential revenue that could have — that should have — been able to come into the district over the last three or four years,” Trujillo told AZPM.
Under the current ESA system, parents receive the voucher money and direct where it goes. Most recipients are granted between $7,000 and $8,000 a year, but payments can exceed $30,000.
It is not entirely clear how the precise size of an ESA award is calculated.The Department of Education’s website says that “an ESA consists of 90% of the state funding that would have otherwise been allocated to the school district or charter school for the qualified student.”
Kowch said the award depends on the amount of money the state would grant the same student if they attended a charter school, and it increases if the student has special needs.
In an email to AZPM, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said that “the ESA rate averages $7,500 per student. It’s higher for special ed students depending on their need. That’s comparable to about $8,300 for a district student and $9,400 for a charter. The ESA number isn’t dependent on the district or charter amount, there are just comparisons.”
Horne was unable to confirm what, besides special needs, affect the range of voucher awards.
Critics see a lack of accountability
Accountability concerns have been raised about the voucher reimbursement process, since requests less than $2,000 are approved automatically and vetted later. Purchases for things like clothing and entertainment have slipped through those cracks. Reports show that some voucher expenses were even traced to out-of-state families who misspent funds.
Horne said he’s established several rules “to prevent fraud and misuse.”
“Number one: We would only pay for valid educational expenses. And number two: It would have to be a reasonable cost according to the market and what's needed to meet the needs of the student,” he said.
“I'm doing everything conceivable to keep it accountable,” Horne said.
Last summer, however, 12News in Phoenix obtained records showing more than 10,000 accounts were hoarding at least $10,000 in their voucher account; 200 of those held more than $100,000.
According to Horne, the Department of Education has recovered $1.2 million misspent in the program. But without more administrators, he said the department can’t keep up with auditing demands. He blamed the gap on Gov. Katie Hobbs.
“So because of the governor's opposition to ESA, she uses her veto power to prevent any increase in administration for 100,000 people that was established for originally 11,000 [ESA recipients]. So you know that's completely irrational and it's what created that problem,” he said.
Kowch said there’s a lack of academic accountability for the ESA system, too, since the state doesn’t track performance in private schools. In his State of Education speech earlier this year, Horne said the state does not interfere with private schools.
After many failed attempts to pass legislative voucher reforms, a coalition of Arizona families and educators represented by Save Our Schools and the Arizona Education Association has introduced a ballot initiative that would hold private schools to similar standards as public schools. It would require voucher-funded private schools to be accredited by a qualified organization or to administer similar academic assessments as public schools. It would also limit ESA eligibility to families making under $150,000 a year.
“Only 5% of Arizona kids under 18 live in ZIP codes with a household income of $130,000 or higher. So this is a really common sense income cap that would not affect the vast majority of participants in the program,” Kowch said.
Nonprofit research institute RAND found that most students using ESAs in 2025 came from affluent backgrounds and were already enrolled in private school.
Another study conducted by the Grand Canyon Institute states that “the program primarily ends up funding students who would not otherwise receive general fund support.”
But Horne disagreed with the idea of income caps.
“What history teaches us is that people start saying, ‘Well, why 250? Why not 200 or 150?’ And the cap starts coming down and pretty soon it's hitting the very people that were in favor of it,” he said.
If Kowch and his colleagues collect enough signatures for their ballot measure between March and July, voters would get a chance to weigh in on their proposed reforms during the November midterm election.
