Local opinion: Unfair ESA vouchers hurt our public schools

The first taxpayer-funded public schools in the U.S. appeared in the Massachusetts colony early in the 17th century. In the mid-19th century, the eminent educator Horace Mann promoted the idea that public education should be universal, non-sectarian and free. By 1870 virtually all states had tax-subsidized public elementary schools. As of 2019, 91% of K-12 students throughout the U.S. are enrolled in public or public-funded charter schools.

In Arizona, school vouchers were first introduced by the Legislature in 2006. Three years later, the Arizoina Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional, deemed illegal for giving public dollars to private schools. Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA), also referred to as School Choice, were created in 2011 to allow students with disabilities to access services to best meet their needs outside of the public school system. In 2022 former Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill expanding ESA eligibility to all students in Arizona. The law works around the Court’s decision and unbelievably, the will of the voters, who in a 2018 referendum rejected the expansion by a 65 to 35% margin.

The law’s current version includes the existing 1.1 million students in traditional public and charter schools. The expansion also includes students who currently attend private school (about 50,000 students) and those who are homeschooled (about 35,000 students). It appears that over half of the expanded vouchers are now going to that latter group (private and homeschooled students) who may have never attended a public school. These vouchers are not just used for tuition purposes, but in some cases have been used to pay for questionable items. In fact, 75% of ESA voucher users are from wealthy Arizona zip codes and many are redeemed via Amazon and Venmo purchases.

In an official statement from the Arizona Department of Education the estimated cost of the ESA program for the 2024 fiscal year will be close to $1 billion. These funds come from the money allocated overall for education in our state and are subtracted from public school resources. To add insult to injury, the minimum ESA voucher is $500 more than the current per student public school allocation. You may be already aware that Arizona is near last in the nation in per-student spending, ranks 49th in teacher salary, spends $5,900 less per child than the national median, and has classrooms that are the second-most crowded in the nation.

This is really not about “school choice”. Some 92% of Arizona parents choose to send their children to public schools and while polls show that many Americans are unsatisfied with the state of K-12 education, an overwhelming majority believe that their local schools provide a strong educational environment. This is about politicians rewarding generous donors with subsidies for their children’s private education. It is about them promising to get government out of your lives by turning over the future of our most precious asset, our children, to private corporations and religious-based institutions. And it most certainly is not about saving taxpayer money. The ADE is spending $600K on advertising to convince you to take your children out of public schools. Think about that for a minute.

Do not just take my word for it, do your own research. Do you like your students’ schools and their teachers? Don’t allow these outside business interests to defund our public schools for their profit. Tell your fellow parents about this and urge your legislators to return the voucher program to what it was initially intended for, giving students with special needs, both physically and academically, an opportunity to seek those out somewhere else. Maybe we could actually fund our public schools to provide those services. What a novel idea!