(UPDATED) 12 News Craig Harris Exposes More Issues with Arizona’s Welfare for the Rich ESA-Private School Voucher Program Scam

A man on a mission, Phoenix Based NBC 12 News Reporter Craig Harris, in the tradition of the muckrakers at the turn of the last century, has spent the last several months broadcasting to viewers the many troubling issues with the Arizona’s one billion dollar Empowerment Scholarship Program (ESA)-Private School Voucher-Welfare for the Rich Program.

While many of what he has reported has been chronicled before (please click here to view Blog of Arizona years long articles on the subject where ESA families seem to come from affluent zip codes, those who hoard funds, spend on items like Legos, and sometimes make up fictitious students) by other muckraking writers and is hardly a surprise to the people who voiced opposition, and support, to the expansion of the ESA program in 2022 at the end of Doug Ducey’s governorship, Harris’s reporting, at a time when MAGA and traditional Republicans in Washington D.C. and the Grand Canyon state, are openly flaunting their decades old desires to expand this welfare for the wealthy and conservative home schoolers at the national and state level, is exposing the rot in a system disguised as school choice when in actuality it is nothing more than a scam, like Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Reverse Robin Hoof Economic Bill, designed to take taxpayer money from the poor and middle class and give it to the wealthy who do not need it.

Over the last week, Harris’s reporting has revealed two more potentially troubling issues with Arizona’s welfare for the rich ESA-Private School Voucher Program Scam.

The first report, which has met differing perspectives from the two people in MAGA world vying to be Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2027 (Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee and current Superintendent Tom Horne) asserts that ESA recipients have used taxpayer funds to pay for the services of underage tutors and babysitters.

Apparently, when the Republicans wrote the law, they did not think to make a minimum age requirement for staffing.

The educational requirements only consist of having a high school or potentially dubious (depending on the parental criteria) homeschool diploma.

Sounds like Republicans created a loophole where some homeschool families could possibly legally scam the system and create a little nest egg for themselves where they can pay big sister Jane to tutor little brother Johnny in Math or have cousin Mary babysit her Aunts kids.

It also gives, according to reporting from Harris, an excuse for Treasurer Yee to say, for privacy concerns, she can not reveal the names of the vendors because of their age.

Commenting to 12 News, State Democratic Assistant House Leader and Educator Nancy Gutierrez said:

“If I wanted to hire a 17 year old to tutor my 15 year old, I could do that. Should that money come from the state? Absolutely not. Who’s deciding if that minor is qualified to provide this service? No one.”

The assertions from Yee and her office that ESA funds were used for babysitting met with a rebuke from Horne and his office saying that is not happening.

In a followup attempt to gather more information, Yee and her people took back her claim that ESA funds were being used for babysitting, saying their original claim was a “mistake.”

Unfortunately, in a system where the release of public records on ESA expenditures is incomplete and the system allows for reimbursements of expenses under $2,000 with no questions asked, who could tell what the money is going toward.

Yee ignored Harris’s questioning on the subject at the Treasurers office.

Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz, the Democratic Candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, recently endorsed by former Superintendent Kathy Hoffman, commented to Blog for Arizona on ESA families using these funds inappropriately, offering:

“The same people who scream about accountability for public schools are awfully quiet as our taxpayer dollars are funding underage babysitters and DIY educators. Republicans created the ESA program in the name of “freedom,” but it’s really a taxpayer-funded free-for-all. Arizona families know who’s responsible for this disaster, and they will voice their anger at the ballot box.”

In Harris’s second report on ESA abuses, he found that families in the system are paying consultants like Jenny Clark from Love our School to find ways to “supplement their lifestyles” and justify “educational” expenses for vacations like trips to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World.

In questioning by Harris, ESA Director John Ward said that if there was approved curriculum for the trip, it would be an allowable educational expense. Furthermore, he said: “It gives families who couldn’t typically afford to go to the San Diego Zoo the opportunity to do that. “

It would be interesting if all the ESA records are ever made public, how many families from middle and working class incomes took advantage of this traveling allowance compared with households from the wealthiest zip codes.

Can you see families from working and middle class zip codes paying people like Jenny Clark to give them advice on where to go for vacations and get reimbursed by the state for it?

Come on.

A visibly annoyed Representative Nancy Gutierrez, when shown the webinar by Love our School commented to Harris:

“ESA’s is up to a billion dollars a year of tax money so that families can go on vacation to San Diego…You could pay for a $2,000 Amazon Gift Card or $1,999 Amazon Gift Card. Use it for whatever you want to. And it’s approved. School Districts are fighting for every single dime they can get and these families are getting $2,000 a pop. It is outrageously inequitable. We are cutting programs every single budget year. And yet, people are going on our dime to the San Diego Zoo.”

In a followup comment to Blog for Arizona, Representative Gutierrez added:

“I applaud the work of these fine journalists who have been investigating these issues. Clearly, an audit of the entire ESA voucher program is warranted. I call on both Treasurer Yee and Mr. Horne to comply with all records requests and submit to a full audit of the program.”

Superintendent Candidate Dr. Ruiz also relayed:

“Most Arizonans are struggling to make ends meet, so being forced to subsidize other families’ vacations through the voucher program really stings. We need a superintendent and a legislature that will help rein in this out-of-control program and protect taxpayers. At this point, ESA stands for Expense Sans Accountability.”

Save Our Schools Arizona issued a social media post on the recent Harris reporting, stating:

“Millions upon millions of dollars are being misused [via ESA vouchers] in our state, money that could be going to our kids’ public schools, but it’s not. As a mom, I’m frustrated, because it feels like our kids are not even given a chance to succeed in public school classrooms.”

Save Our Schools Arizona Executive Director Beth Lewis commented later to Blog for Arizona:

“The use of private school voucher funding on extras like Sea World, waterparks, exorbitant kitchen appliances, and luxury ski trips is nothing new, but we are glad to see this investigate reporting inform more Arizona taxpayers of the grift we have been witnessing for years. The Republican-led legislature’s outright refusal to put guardrails on this program to ensure transparency and accountability of our tax dollars — even though they’ve known about these abuses for years. Meanwhile, our public schools cannot afford basics like copy paper and crayons because of years of chronic underfunding by the same politicians shoveling money into private accounts with no oversight. It’s a crying shame.”

in a previous article, I cited President Joe Biden’s comment, saying “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”

The 2026 election is for voters to decide what they value.

Do they value letting the children of the affluent take their hard earned taxpayer money and use it for their own welfare for the wealthy scam to pay for their child’s private school education, hoard funds for college, and pay for nice vacations to Sea World at the same time their families neighborhood public school cut staff while enlarging class sizes, the Republicans at the federal government level are cutting Pell Grants and funds for Head Start that would help their children, and they can not afford to take their kids to San Diego because they are struggling to put food on the table because the government, under Trump and his MAGA Republicans, have cut food assistance and access to health insurance.

Republicans are on the wrong side of history and public service on this and other issues and it is incumbent on Arizona Democratic Leaders like Katie Hobbs, Adrian Fontes, Kris Mayes, Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz, Nick Mansour, Senator Priya Sundareshan, Senator Catherine Miranda, Representative Oscar De Los Santos, and Representative Nancy Gutierrez to welcome and embrace this debate while making their case to the voters in 2026.