MESA, AZ — More Arizona students are enrolling into the Universal Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, and as some public schools continue to see declining enrollment and decreasing funds as a result of that, the state’s largest school district is trying to find ways to compete and gain more revenue. That includes its growing Eagleridge Enrichment Program.
Eighth-grader Jade Johnson has been homeschooled for most of her life, but since 2023, she’s been going to a Mesa Public Schools campus for class. She’s not going as a student of the district but only for extracurricular classes a few times a week.
“I took a sewing class, I fixed my jeans… I learned how to socialize with more of my friends and overall, it's just been a great experience,” she told ABC15.
Johnson is one of about 700 students that participate in the Eagleridge Enrichment Program. The district started the program in the 1990s for homeschool families, offering classes other than core subjects.
“We realized there was a growth in the homeschool community. There was interest in the homeschool community to have this kind of hybrid option of bringing their children to a public school part of the time,” explained Mesa Superintendent Andi Fourlis.
Classes offered through the program include sewing, robotics, a farm-to-table class, music and much more. The teachers part of Eagleridge teach multiple courses, and the students do not get grades.
“Our program does not follow the Arizona Department of Education’s academic standards,” explained Michael Karpinski, the principal of the program. “Our program does not give grades. Our teachers are not developing those typical formative assessments that would be in a 5th grade classroom.”
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With students being homeschooled, their parent or guardian is what’s called the teacher of record, so they teach the students the core subjects however they’d like. The Eagleridge courses are just extra learning opportunities for students outside of the home.
Homeschool mom Amanda Stradling had one student go through the Eagleridge program and another is still in it. She told ABC15 that her daughter did not do well in public school when she was in kindergarten and first grade and since then she’s been homeschooling. They found the Eagleridge program years ago and found it to be helpful.
“It was such a great creative outlet for her, a social outlet and same for my son. They both really thrived,” she said.
Stradling uses ESA funds to pay for Eagleridge. Parents can have their students take part in the program from one to three days a week for several hours a day.
Of the 700 students at Eagleridge, about 90% of the students use ESA, according to the district.
“As a homeschool parent it’s always a struggle. You’re taking a big cut in your career and your pay that you would be making. For me, personally, it’s been great because I get to work part time on the two days my kids are at Eagleridge, and that money has always gone 100% to homeschool supplies. Now, it doesn’t totally have to,” Stradling said.
School choice is becoming more prevalent in Arizona. As Mesa Public Schools continues to see a decline in enrollment and decreasing funds, the district announced layoffs for the upcoming school year. Superintendent Fourlis says they have to look at all their options for solutions.
“Education in Arizona is a market driven economy. We have to make sure we're relevant which means if our families have vouchers and they're homeschool families, and they want to purchase services, we had to create a mechanism to make that happen,” Fourlis said.
ESA students can also buy certain courses with the district or participate in sports for a fee.
For the Eagleridge program, it costs $462 for a student to go to classes one day per week, per quarter.
Fourlis said when they figure out how much to charge, they use the formula with how they’re funded from the state and apply that to same funding formula for ESA families.
In Fiscal Year 2024, the district said it collected more than $1.4 million in ESA revenue from Eagleridge families. Additional ESA money from other programs came in at more than $18,000 at five other school sites.
“I see it as being at the forefront of this, of being able to utilize those ESA funds but yet still provide that community type of programming of an ever-growing homeschool community that continues to want to utilize a program like this,” Karpinski said.
Fourlis said they have ideas to expand programs for homeschool families in the near future.
Eagleridge was just approved by the board to expand from K-8 to K-12, which Karpinski said they are working on doing that for the new school year as more families are requesting the expansion.
