Democratic Rep. Laura Terech made it clear that school choice funds shouldn’t exist at all — even for treating disabilities in children.
Terech joined fellow anti-school choice Democratic colleagues in deriding families that use Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) funding for hippotherapy, referring to it as “horseback riding.” The state representative echoed the sentiments of Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (LD-18), who called for more restrictions on the ESA Program.
Here you go @lauraforAZ – Shame on your for attacking our kids, my kids, to push your agenda!!!! pic.twitter.com/XymlsGCu91
— Jenny Clark (@ClarkRimsza) October 4, 2023
Hippotherapy consists of horseback riding to enhance the benefits of physical, occupational, and speech therapy with additional sensory input.
Arizona State Board of Education member Jenny Clark took issue with the Democratic lawmakers’ contempt for the freedoms the ESA Program affords to parents.
Clark explained that her family has benefited from hippotherapy.
“How dare legislators like [Rep. Terech] attack special needs qualifying families like mine who have used hippotherapy from incredible AZ therapists for our kids!” said Clark. “She negatively puts it here as ‘horseback riding’ as if that’s bad or something. Get a clue. These people don’t support [special education] families.”
"Approved expenses last year included more than $800,000 dollars for horseback riding, trips to zoos in eight states, and about three thousand transactions at indoor trampoline parks, according to state data analyzed by ABC15." https://t.co/J5rYxBGW09
— Laura Terech (@lauraforAZ) October 4, 2023
Hobbs and Democratic lawmakers have claimed that the ESA Program will “bankrupt” the state based on the under-projection of the number of students entering the ESA Program.
“The newest voucher cost programs show us what we already knew: this program is unsustainable and does not save taxpayers money,” said Hobbs.
The newest voucher cost projections show us what we already knew: this program is unsustainable and does not save taxpayers money. We must bring transparency and accountability to this program to ensure school vouchers don’t bankrupt our state. I’m committed to reforming…
— Governor Katie Hobbs (@GovernorHobbs) July 25, 2023
Clark responded to the claim as “embarrassingly misleading.” Clark noted that $7.7 billion of the $17.88 billion budget was set aside for education. Even with more families than predicted entering the ESA Program, Clark shared that the increase takes up around $21 million (.12 percent) of Arizona’s budget.
“Why are we trusting anything they have to say about budgets when they clearly don’t understand anything about how the budget process works?” asked Clark.
https://twitter.com/ClarkRimsza/status/1710345987544564009
Over 67,900 students were enrolled in the ESA Program as of last week. If every child received a full $6,500 in school choice funding, that would amount to over $441.5 million.
Last month, Superintendent Tom Horne said that taxpayers contribute about $13,000 or more for every student in public school, based on both state and local taxes.
“Combined they contribute about $13,000 per student (some estimates are higher) for every student in public school,” said Horne. “If a student leaves a public school for a private school, and obtains a payment from ESA of $7200, that is a savings of about $6000 per student to the taxpayers.”
According to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC), per-pupil funding sits at over $13,500 per student in traditional public schools, and at over $11,400 in charter schools.