The Arizona Attorney General’s office, headed by Kris Mayes, announced the indictment of five individuals, three of them former employees at the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) for “allegedly engaging in fraud, conspiracy, computer tampering, illegally conducting an enterprise, money laundering and forgery related to the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program.” The defendants who have … Read more
And we are off. Welcome to 2024. The ESA wars in Arizona have begun. In possibly a preview of comments that will be in her upcoming State of the State Address on Monday, January 8, 2023, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs threw the first salvo in what is likely going to be a long dragged-out fight … Read more
Last October, the Blog for Arizona and other news outlets, especially ABC 15 News, reported on some of the questionable expenses of Empowerment Scholarship Account (E.S.A.) recipients (70,000 as of now with $665 million spent according to the JBLC) that met the approval of the Department of Education. Among these approved expenses were: Last week, … Read more
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’s office released a July 21, 2023 study confirming that if the Arizona Department of Education’s (A.D.E.) questionable May 2023 enrollment projections for voucher scholarship accounts are accurate and the Fiscal Year 2024 State Budget may face a close to $320 million shortfall. This happened only hours before: What does the July … Read more
Talk about a potential scam. Or blatant stupidity. The Empowerment Scholarship Account (E.S.A.) Division at the Arizona Department of Education has indicated, through a response on their call center on social media, that taking children to a waterpark could count as a valid expense for physical education activities/coursework. Education advocates and Legislative oversight leaders should … Read more