The Arizona Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into the Arizona Department of Education over allegations it approved school voucher expenses not authorized under law, prompting the department to stop approving the expenses in question.
Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Boughton sent a letter to the department on July 1 notifying it of the investigation into the voucher, known as the empowerment scholarship account or ESA, program. In the letter, Boughton said she is investigating concerns that some guidance included in the parent handbook for voucher families produced by the department violates state law.
At issue is a section in the handbook on “supplemental materials” parents can purchase with voucher money — ranging from books to science kits to board games — without providing proof that the items are connected to an educational curriculum approved by the Department of Education.
That, Boughton argued, runs contrary to state law, saying the department must require proof from parents.
She cited a stipulation in the state’s school voucher law allowing money to be spent on “curricula and supplementary materials,” and defining curriculum as a “course of study … approved by the department.” The State Board of Education also adopted rules defining supplementary materials as “relevant materials directly related to the course of study for which they are being used that introduce content and instructional strategies … or support the curriculum.”
“Approving ESA funds for materials that have no nexus to the student’s actual curricular
needs contradicts the intent of the program and constitutes a payment of funds made without
authorization of law,” Boughton wrote.
The practice, Boughton claimed, puts public dollars that fund the voucher program at risk.
“The absence of requirement for documentation of a curriculum nexus may enable account holders or vendors to engage in fraudulent behavior, such as purchasing items with ESA funds solely for the purpose of resale,” Boughton wrote.
Boughton also accused the Department of Education of failing to provide parents with guidance concerning what documentation they must provide the department when purchasing textbooks or curriculum to ensure it complies with state law and voucher program requirements.
The Department of Education responded to the letter days later on July 3, confirming it will no longer approve the purchase of materials or textbooks without documentation proving it connects to a curriculum.
In a letter to the Attorney General, John Ward, the ESA program executive director, told Boughton that approval practice predated current Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne’s administration.
“The 2023-2024 ESA Parent Handbook, which is the current Handbook in force, continued the preexisting practice of allowing ESA Holders to purchase supplemental materials without curricula—a practice begun in the prior ADE administration,” Ward wrote.
The Department of Education notified parents of the change that same day, leading to an outcry from voucher advocates who see it as a politically-motivated attack by Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat and critic of the voucher program.
“This is truly government overreach,” Christine Accurso, a voucher activist who played a key role in pushing the state legislature to expand the program to all students in 2022, wrote on her personal blog.
Accurso, who briefly ran the program under Horne before leaving following accusations that she was responsible for a highly-publicized data breach, said parents, not the state government, should decide how taxpayer-funded voucher money is spent.
“The ESA program is not an educational program,” Accurso wrote. “It is a program that offers parents tax dollars to be used for educational purposes. Educational accountability is 100% on the parents.”
House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria), who sponsored the voucher expansion bill in 2022, agreed.
“It appears that the Attorney General’s Office is advancing an argument that documentation is required for most ESA-related expenses,” Toma wrote to Horne on July 10. “The legislative record does not support such an overly restrictive view or burdensome administration of the ESA program.”
Toma told Horne to resist the Attorney General’s demands.
“As you implement your Department’s policies, I urge you to scrutinize Attorney General Mayes’ unsolicited legal advice…consider how her interpretation of Arizona statutes would impact parents throughout the state, and reject her interpretation of the law that would lead to absurd results,” he wrote.
The demand from the Attorney General’s office comes shortly after the Department of Education projected enrollment in the voucher program could hit 100,000 students next year, though legislative analysts projected slower growth. Both sides agreed the program’s cost will exceed $800 million next year.
That alone, critics said, is a good reason for the Attorney General to scrutinize the voucher spending.
“Our state is spending hundreds of millions a year in taxpayer dollars on the ESA voucher program. Arizona deserves answers about where that money is going!” the Arizona Education Association, the state’s public school teachers union, wrote online.
