Arizona lawmakers are ushering a tentative budget through the Legislature, but Democrats and public school union allies are warning of political blowback if a rollback of the nation’s first universal school choice program isn’t included.
The budget bills are the result of negotiations between lawmakers and freshman Democrat Katie Hobbs’ office. While the governor has made scaling back the Empowerment Scholarship Account program – which allows any resident with a school-aged child to receive 90% of the public school funds their attendance would bring the district and use it to attend the school of their choosing – a priority, the budget compromise as introduced doesn’t touch it.
Arizona’s ESA program has grown exponentially since its inception, now supporting nearly 55,000 students. Nearly half of the states in the country have or are considering school choice programs similar to Arizona’s.
News of the absence of an ESA rollback spurred a public campaign pressuring Democratic lawmakers and Hobbs to either include it or refuse the budget.
“We won’t accept any budget that doesn’t include a significant cap or rollback of ESA vouchers which are bankrupting our schools & our state,” Save our Schools Arizona tweeted. “It’s time to DEMAND BETTER for AZ public school students & educators.”
The nonprofit led the failed push to add a new income tax surcharge for high-earning residents and funnel the revenue to public schools. Other Democratic lawmakers took to social media, saying a budget without touching the ESA program wasn’t acceptable.
“I am disappointed that our budget does not include even a temporary pause on universal vouchers,” Rep. Laura Terech, D-Phoenix, tweeted Monday. “The new vouchers are threatening to bankrupt our state. They are also causing delays and issues for the original recipients.”
Terech’s district senator pointed to the increasing popularity of Arizona’s ESAs.
“I’m disappointed that the Arizona budget does not place a cap – even temporarily – on Arizona’s voucher expansion,” tweeted Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix. “Expanded vouchers are costing the state nearly half a billion dollars this year and are causing problems for the original beneficiaries: special ed students.”
School choice supporters point out that the total cost of the ESA program amounts to a small percentage of Arizona’s nearly $15 billion public school education appropriation for the fiscal year ending in June.
“Hobbs complained that ESAs will cost Arizona at least $1.5 billion over the next decade, yet the $15 billion annual cost of our public schools will total more than $150 billion over that same time horizon,” wrote Matt Beienburg, Goldwater Institute’s Director of Education Policy, in January. “To argue that taxpayers can afford the latter, but somehow not the former, defies basic common sense.”
Arizona appropriates $11,300 per student, according to previous analyses of school funding in the state. When parents utilize the ESA program, they receive up to $7,000 from the state. While the districts lose out on that funding, the state ends up saving money.
Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
