Michael A. Chihak: School voucher misuse is rampant

Doug Ducey and fellow Republican officeholders past and present in Arizona have enabled what one official describes as fraud in the school voucher program.

Ducey, in his last year as governor in 2022, signed legislation making vouchers universal, that is, without recipients proving need. Since then, more than 100,000 families have received vouchers. Three-fourths were already sending their children to private schools, the research group Rand Corp. reported, an indication that they didn’t need financial help.

Now comes an Arizona attorney general’s report saying voucher recipients have made millions of dollars in “unallowed” purchases. The Arizona Republic reported last week that a random sample of purchases showed more than 20% were outside the program’s guidelines; further, full audits of some accounts showed 46% of purchases were “unallowed.”

Samples: $1,700 diamond necklace; $999 refrigerator; $100 toaster. Are you outraged yet? Try these: $7,500 for video gaming equipment; $996 espresso machine; parents paying themselves up to $5,700 for home schooling, which is forbidden under the voucher law. The list of "unallowed" purchases in this limited audit runs 3,681 pages, with 10 items on each page.

Perhaps what children are learning under the voucher program is how to be swindlers and game the system.

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs wants changes to limit vouchers, and Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes wants tighter controls in the Department of Education to stop “unallowed” spending. Republican Tom Horne, the state superintendent of public instruction, has resisted, saying his office allows purchases of up to $2,000, with reviews coming later.

Horne, who like Hobbs and Mayes is seeking re-election this fall, has said that his office has recovered $600,000 in unauthorized spending. The random audit’s finding of more than 20% "unallowed" spending means a program that’s approaching $1 billion in annual costs could have fraudulent losses of hundreds of millions. 

Mayes told the Republic that she is prepared to refer people defrauding the program to her office's criminal division for investigation.

Legislative Republicans have stopped any changes to the voucher law. Some of these same lawmakers are pushing limits on what people can buy with their benefits from SNAP, also known as food stamps. No soda or potato chips for people in need, but $996 espresso machines are OK for hilltop dwellers.

Under the voucher program, known formally as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, parents can apply for $7,000 for a child to attend private school, including a religious school — the separation of church and state be damned — or for homeschooling.

As conceived, vouchers would give parents the means to move their children out of what conservatives pejoratively call failing public schools and into private schools where they might get better educations.

"This is a monumental moment for all of Arizona’s students. Our kids will no longer be locked in underperforming schools," Ducey said in a statement when he signed the voucher bill into law in July 2022.

How disingenuous of him. Many children remain in under-performing schools because even with $7,000 in payments, their parents can’t afford private school tuition that this year averages $12,314 in the state, according to the website privateschoolreview.com.

Why are some public schools “under-performing”? Because Republicans in control of the Legislature won’t fund them adequately or don’t care to do anything about socioeconomic problems that many Arizona families face.

Meantime, many private schools thrive, some even operating at profits, something that Ducey said in the past he supported.

As Billie Holiday sang: “Them that's got shall get, them that's not shall lose.”

Who shall lose? We Arizona taxpayers.