Voucher Scam Bleeds AZ Schools Until Democrats Flip the Legislature

The wildly unpopular, fraud-ridden, and expensive school voucher scam will continue to bleed nearly a Billion dollars from public schools in 2024 so long as Republicans dictate the state legislature.

“It really comes down to flipping the legislature if we want to make any kind of progress with the vouchers,” said Abbie Hlavacek, Tucson Coordinator for Save Our Schools AZ (SOS). “We are defunding our constitutionally mandated public school for the kids that need it the most.”

She spoke at a recent meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson. Save Our Schools is a nonpartisan, community-based organization fighting for strong public schools for a stronger Arizona.

Republicans dither, time is running out.

The Republican majority in the Legislature has been dithering about funding public education. The Legislature must extend Prop. 123 every ten years to fund public schools. Voters approved Prop. 123 in Nov. 2000.

Democratic proposals to boost public school spending by 8.9% are not getting hearings and thus, are dead. Meanwhile, Republicans want to put two confusing initiatives on the ballot, but internal divisions are blocking competing bills to raise funding by only 5.5% or 6.9%.

“The Republicans really do their best to pretend that they care about this issue,” said Democratic Representative Chris Mathis (D-LD18), speaking at a separate meeting of the Tanque Verde Democrats. “It’s so important to flip our Legislature in 2024.”

Sen. Priya Sundareshan (D-LD18) agreed, adding, “Voucher spending is going to private schools and draining our public education system. Let’s flip the Legislature and make sure that we have a much better legislative body for the Governor to work with next year.”

Vouchers rife with fraud

“School vouchers are coupons for the wealthy,” Hlavacek pointed out. “We send coupons for pricey private schools to the wealthy whose kids need them the least.”

Vouchers started in 2011 in Arizona as a small program for disabled children. However, despite strong voter opposition, Republicans expanded the voucher system in 2022, and enrollment exploded from 12,127 to 61,689 students.

The expanded tuition vouchers are rife with fraud. “What is being purchased with these vouchers? So we have seen bouncy houses paid. We have seen chicken coops purchased. We’ve seen Expresso machines, Pelotons, and a $9,000 sewing machine. I can’t think of any single reason other than this was a purchase intended to start a business,” Hlavacek said.

Four state employees were charged on Feb. 29 with defrauding the voucher system as part of an inside job within the Arizona Department of Education’s universal voucher program.

Specialists with the ESA program and their adult children sought to obtain money and property through the program for personal gain. A grand jury charged the four employees with fraud, conspiracy, computer tampering, illegally conducting an enterprise, money laundering and forgery.

Voters oppose school vouchers.

Voters rejected Republican Prop. 305 to expand vouchers in 2018. But the Legislature is ignoring the voters.

On top of that, 60% of Arizona voters now oppose school vouchers, according to Hlavacek.

But the Republican Legislature does not care. “The Republicans don’t usually care that much if bills are constitutional or consistent with statute before,” Mathis said.

Most parents – 92% — are still choosing public and charter schools, which are both funded from the same general fund. However, the vouchers have extensively damaged public schools.

Arizona is 49th in the US in per-pupil school funding. The AZ Legislature spends $5,202 per pupil less than all the other states. This damages all 1,362,000 students enrolled in public and charter schools.

What Do We Do About It?

Hlavacek identified seven ways voters and parents can support full funding of public education:

• Join your local SOS Community Action Team bit.ly/SOSAZvol
• Stay up to date on the #AZLeg, school boards & the AZ Department of Education: SOSaznetwork.org
• Organize, register voters and testify in support of our schools
• Support pro-public education officials and candidates.
• Get SOS emails: bit.ly/sosaz
• Show you are public school proud by wearing this SOSAZ Public School Proud T-shirt: bit.ly/SOSAZmerch
• Volunteer: bit.ly/SOSAZvol or scan the QR code.

Seven reasons why vouchers are a scam

Marion Hill, a Board member and newsletter writer for the LD17 Democrats, said Save Our Schools offers an eye-opening account of why the voucher system is a scam:

1. Lack of accountability to anyone – taxpayers don’t know how their taxes are being spent;
2. Bankrupting our state budget – approximately $835 million shortfall this year;
3. Advantage to the rich – 75% of vouchers go to families whose children were already enrolled in private schools they could well afford;
4. Discrimination – private schools can pick their students and often don’t take special needs students;
5. Extravagant, non-educational purchases – no accreditation or curriculum requirements or testing;
6. Fraud – current voucher fraud cases and no transparency to spot fake tutoring companies, etc.;
7. Gutting public schools – schools are facing massive budget cuts.

As the SOS newsletter says, “This voucher scam robs Arizona students and Arizona taxpayers.”