Arizona: A Tale of Two School Systems
The rich get more, the rest get less
The latest news out of Arizona’s school voucher madness reinforces a familiar theme: Universal school voucher schemes provide discount coupons for wealthy families and minimal benefits for everyone else.
Save Our Schools Arizona breaks it down:
This week, 12 News released yet another explosive report on ESA vouchers, revealing that more than $440 million in taxpayer dollars is sitting unused in voucher accounts — all while Arizona’s public school students go without desperately needed resources due to woefully inadequate funding from the state. As the report states, the Education Data Initiative ranked AZ 49th in funding for public education.
Unbelievably, state law allows these rollover funds to be used for college 🤯 When former Gov. Ducey and the Republican-led legislature expanded vouchers universally in 2022, they forced in language allowing ESA voucher funds to be used on post-secondary education, including in-state and out-of-state tuition for colleges and universities. Meanwhile, public school parents must pay on their own dime.
Hoarders?
It seems some are simply using the voucher funds as a college slush fund:
More than 10,000 accounts are sitting on at least $10,000 each
Nearly 200 people have more than $100,000 each
Ten accounts have more than $200,000 each, and one account has $261,159
The public education advocates in Arizona rightly wonder: What would happen if that $440 million were invested in public education? Or, could it be used to reduce the cost of state colleges in Arizona for ALL students?
My parents certainly were not rich. Mom worked at the private school to put us in and pay the bill. Not fair to pay property tax and get thing for it.