AZ Office of the Governor shares memo on private school voucher program
PHOENIX (KYMA, KECY) - Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs' Deputy Chief of Staff shared an analysis of Arizona's Education Savings Account program for private school vouchers, which has gone past its projected costs when Republicans passed it in 2022.
Arizona House Democratic Leaders sent out a statement about the situation.
"This analysis confirms our worst fears: The unlimited voucher program is out of control and unsustainable," said Democratic Whip Nancy Gutierrez, a longtime public-school teacher. "There's no limit on how much can be spent, and it is on pace to cost nearly $1 billion when its original price tag was $33 million. That will put our budget shortfall at $320 million next year."
Gutierrez added, "Also, Superintendent Horne and voucher advocates are wrong when they say vouchers will save the state money. The majority of recipients had not attended a public school before receiving a subsidy for private school or homeschooling so that's a new cost. And those who did switch are funded at the charter school funding level, which is higher than our per-student investment in district public schools so no savings there, either. This program has no academic standards, no transparency, no accountability, no oversight, and it's driving our state budget into a ditch. There are no easy answers on the horizon, but our Republican colleagues who approved this program must come to the table to help keep it under control before it puts every other priority in the state budget at risk."Â
Nancy Gutierrez, Democratic Whip
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne released a statement about the memo as well.
Horne stated, “The Arizona Department of Education submitted a report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) on May 30th outlining our estimates for the number of students that will participate in the ESA program by the end of the 2024 Fiscal Year. On May 31st, John Ward and I held a news conference where all aspects of these estimates, including the methodology, were thoroughly discussed and scrutinized by members of the news media. This contradicts the contention that ADE was anything less than transparent in this process.
The projections we released are, ironically, almost exactly the same as those in the governor’s memo. There is a difference of only .008 percent between their numbers and ours. Questioning our methodology and our commitment to integrity in this process is unfair and unnecessary.
ADE is managing the Empowerment Scholarship Account program in accordance with the law. Under my Democrat predecessor, the law was not strictly followed, and ESA funds were used for non-educational purposes. One of my first acts when I took office was to hire John Ward from the Arizona Auditor General as the internal auditor for the Department of Education. He is now the director of the ESA program, and he is as committed as I am to making sure the law is strictly enforced and every penny is spent on valid educational purposes.
Tom Horne, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction
You can read the memo below:
