Groups spend millions to shape Arizona school voucher reform

It's shaping up to be an expensive race to convince voters what sort of reforms they want to the state's voucher program.

Protect Education Now — a plan crafted by the Arizona Education Association and Save Our Schools Arizona — reports that it has so far collected $4.6 million in a bid to put its plan on the November ballot. And virtually all of that has come from the Arizona Education Association.

Expenses to date total $2.7 million for "professional services," much of that presumably to get the necessary 255,949 valid signatures by July 2 to qualify for ballot status.

A separate group operating under the official name Fortify AZ has taken in $1.3 million, all of that from Arizona Federation for Children. That group supports vouchers of taxpayer dollars — formally known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts — so parents can pay for homeschooling expenses or send their children to private and parochial schools.

But officials said they decided to put up their own plan to add some financial guardrails following reports of abuse of the voucher system. And that created the threat that voters, having no other choice, might approve what AFC considers the more onerous plan of the education groups.

It has nearly $1.3 million in expenses, mostly for signature gathering.

But it could end up being a three-way battle in November: There also is a movement to convince voters to reject both plans.

In a post on X, Jason Bedrick said he was "disappointed" that American Federation for Children is "pushing a ballot initiative that would impose unnecessary and harmful regulations on Arizona's popular Empowerment Scholarship Account program, especially without having consulted with the local school choice coalition first."

Bedrick, who has written about school choice as a matter of religious liberty, is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy.

At the heart of both ballot proposals is what changes, if any, are needed to the voucher system.

These were first approved in 2011, providing state funds to parents whose children have special needs that could not be met in public schools.

Over the years, it has been expanded to take in foster children, children living on reservations, children of active duty military, and students attending public schools rated D or F.

But the big change came in 2022, when then-Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation creating "universal vouchers," allowing any student — including those whose parents already were paying to send them to private schools — to get a voucher.

Enrollment ballooned from about 12,000 to around 100,000 now, with the typical voucher worth $7,400. And the price tag now has hit $1 billion.

What also has happened is some investigative reporting by Craig Harris at KPNX, the Phoenix NBC affiliate. He came up with documents showing that some parents have used their voucher funds to purchase diamond rings and necklaces, appliances, lingerie, trips to theme parks and recreational equipment. Harris, through public records requests, also reported he found voucher dollars used to pay for trips to 44 states and 13 other countries.

State schools chief Tom Horne is disputing the extent of the problem but has not denied that his office, with limited staff and funds, has had to allow some expenses of up to $2,000 to go through automatically, subject to being clawed back if an audit discovers misuse.

Kayla Mae Jackson

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Cronkite News

The common thread to both measures seeks to tighten up the process, complete with a very specific list of what kinds of expenses are not allowed. They include appliances, home improvements, admission to water or amusement parks, water slides, hot tubs, international travel restaurant dining, and any type of motor-operated vehicle or watercraft.

But there are some significant differences.

Most visible is that the proposal from the education groups would deny vouchers to children in families making more than $150,000 a year, a figure that would be adjusted annually for inflation.

What also is in the measure pushed by education groups is a requirement for students at schools which accept vouchers to take assessment tests similar to what are required at public schools. By contract, the Fortify AZ proposal says testing is necessary only for students not enrolled in "qualified" public schools, a term that is undefined.

In a prepared statement, Tommy Schultz, CEO of Arizona Federation for Children, said what Fortify AZ is offering is far superior to the alternative being pushed by the education groups.

"The teachers union initiative would gut school choice in Arizona for more than 100,000 kids," Schultz said. "This pro-choice school initiative makes it durable for generations to come."

That last point goes to the fact that the Arizona Constitution says anything approved at the ballot, whether the one by AEA or Fortify AZ, could not be altered or repealed by the Legislature. Other than some fine tuning, which requires a super-majority vote of lawmakers, all changes would have to go back to voters.

AEA President Marisol Garcia has said her organization welcomes anyone calling for "common-sense reforms to Arizona's billion-dollar voucher mess." But she also said the new proposal "appears to be missing some key reforms that are necessary to prevent out-of-control spending."

And Garcia said backing of the initiative by the pro-voucher American Federation for Children shows "it does not appear to be a genuine push for voucher reform."