PHOENIX — On a lawn in front of the Arizona Capitol on Wednesday, there was a small blow-up bounce house slide, a piano, a paddleboard and many more random items.
Those are items organization Save Our Schools brought out as examples of approved purchases by the Arizona Department of Education for universal Empowerment Scholarship Account holders. The purchases were shown after ABC15 Investigators analyzed about $300 million in purchases in the first year ESA expanded to more students than just students with disabilities.
About two-thirds of purchases went to private and religious schools for tuition and other fees. However, there were also some that included other items:
- $3,400 spent on a single transaction at a golf store.
- A $10,000 expense at a sewing machine company.
- Appliances that freeze dry food. Average cost? $3,000 each. (According to the ESA program, this is no longer an allowable expense.)
- More than 100 passes to Arizona Snowbowl ski resort.
- $350,000 for ninja warrior training centers, trampoline parks, and climbing gyms.
- $1.2 million spent on martial arts instruction.
Arizona Department of Education leaders have told ABC15 a majority of the purchases are valid and allowed.
“Our research shows that for $4,000 you buy excellent pianos that are just perfect for students to learn on,” Superintendent Tom Horne said on Wednesday.
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Piano purchases ended up being one talking point in a news conference held by Save Our Schools, education leaders and lawmakers who are urging for guardrails on the universal ESA program as budget talks continue among legislators.
“You’re telling me that instead of our tax dollars going to having a piano in a classroom where hundreds of kids can use it for decades, we’re paying for one family to have a piano in their living room? This is ridiculous,” Democratic State House Representative Analise Ortiz said at the news conference.
“A budget without ESA voucher reform is no budget at all,” added Beth Lewis, the director of Save Our Schools, which has been a long critic of the universal program.
Superintendent Tom Horne maintains that ESAs are not a threat to public schools and that families should have choices.
“I think anyone who would be against that - is they're so immersed in ideology that they're coldhearted about the academic needs of the children,” he said.
Horne told ABC15 he feels guardrails are not needed for the ESA program as it is right now. Governor Katie Hobbs, among other Democratic state lawmakers, unveiled an eight-point plan earlier this year to try and “increase accountability and transparency” in the program.
“We're doing it ourselves. I've had people say to me, ‘You've had no right to do it,’ they can get whatever they want and I say no, I'm obligated as a custodian of taxpayer funds to be sure they're spent prudently and we're doing that,” he said.
In a January report from bipartisan group the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, Fiscal Year ’24 budgeted about $625 million for about 68,000 ESA students. In January, the JLBC said enrollment was at 72,000 students giving out about $690 million. The group forecasts that ESA enrollment will grow to 82,000 in Fiscal Year ’25 for a total of about $825 million.
On the Arizona Department of Education website Wednesday, there are currently about 75,000 students enrolled. However, that is about 2,000 fewer students than ABC15 reported on just a few weeks ago.
“We had some families whose students were enrolled in public school, who applied for ESA funds. As soon as we discovered, we checked it against public school records, as soon as we discovered it, we suspended those accounts, with few exceptions, no money was spent,” Horne said.
Horne then said there are a few students they have to try and get their money back through the Attorney General’s Office and could not provide any numbers at the time.
Republican lawmakers have previously said the ESA program is accountable and transparent, however, their counterparts and critics say it is not.
“Families are fine, but there's something wrong with the law that these are being spent that way,” State Senate Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein said of all the items displayed at the news conference Wednesday.
State Speaker of the House Ben Toma provided the following statement to ABC15:
“Republicans are protecting school choice options for families, while Democrats and their allies are trying to restrict it. The ESA program is wildly popular with Arizona parents and it's not going anywhere while I'm the Speaker of the House.”
