More on Arizona’s new education “empowerment savings accounts”

by David Safier

I've written before about Arizona's new and dangerous "empowerment savings accounts," which put money for children's education into individual "savings accounts" — a ploy Republican legislators hope will get around the problem vouchers have had in the courts. By my lights, it is the most dangerous incarnation I have seen of the voucher idea, for reasons too involved to discuss in this post. If you want details, you can read more here and here.

The new program is not getting the attention it deserves, but Michelle Reese, a very heads-up reporter at the East Valley Trib, has covered it a few times. Her latest article answers a question I had. How much money do participating students get in their "savings accounts" each year?

See, the only students who qualify for "savings accounts" at this point are ones with some kind of educational disability. The cost of educating those students is higher than for the average student. And, as I suspected, the extra money follows them. While Arizona's per student cost is about $7,000 (give or take $500), according to Reese, the average "savings account" student gets $13,600.

The lowest account awarded this fall was about $1,900. The highest was $28,000. The average was $13,600, according to education department.

This raises all kinds of issues, but I'll only mention one. My understanding is, though it can cost as much as $30,000 to have children with severe disabilities in public schools, I don't believe the entire cost is covered by the state. In other words, districts dip into other funds to pay for part of those students' educations. If this is true (and I hope someone with more knowledge than I will help out here), that may mean the state will actually be paying more for these children's educations than if they remained in public schools.