Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Are Under Fire Again

The latest attempt to do away with the popular program that champions school choice was introduced February 6 in the form of a ballot initiative supported by two anti-school-choice organizations, Save Our Schools and the Arizona Education Association.

To place this initiative on the ballot this fall will require at least 255,949 valid signatures by July 2. It may be difficult for the organizations supporting this effort to obtain the required signatures because the ESA program is very popular, as evidenced by the fact that the number of students enrolled just surpassed the 100,000 mark.

Supporters of the ESA program were quick to react to this latest effort by detractors. AZ House Speaker Steve Montenegro had this to say in a recent press release:

“The ballot campaign announced by ESA opponents has one clear goal: to strip parents of the freedom to choose the best education for their children. If successful, it would gut Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program and force tens of thousands of students out of schools that work for them and back into district systems that have already failed too many families.”

On January 12, the Goldwater Institute, a strong supporter of school choice, issued an eight-point rebuttal to Gov. Hubbs’ attacks on ESA’s. Those attacks are in lock step with the claims being made in support of this ballot initiative by the organizations supporting it.

1. ESAs give kids the education they deserve. Today, more than 99,000 Arizona students benefit from the ESA program. Under ESAs, parents receive over $7,000 per child to use for their tuition or other educational needs. That’s half of what our public schools cost taxpayers per student.
2. Public school funding has increased, not decreased, with ESAs.Since Arizona expanded ESAs universally in 2022, total state and local funding for public schools has risen by over $2 billion, and inflation-adjusted funding per student is over $500 higher today than before the expansion.
3. ESAs are not bankrupting the state.Arizona posted a multibillion-dollar budget surplus in the first year of universal ESAs even after accounting for the increased award amounts, and later budget shortfalls were driven by increased state spending—not ESA costs, which largely offset reduced public-school enrollment.
4. ESAs are not driving school closures. Critics blame shuttered schools on ESAs. But the truth is, the drop in public school enrollment is overwhelmingly driven by lower birth rates and families leaving their local (often underperforming) public school districts for different publicIn the Roosevelt Elementary district, for example, only 102 students who previously attended the district left for an ESA, while 8,440 students (over halfof the kids who live there) have opted out of the school district and fled to different public schools not operated by Roosevelt.
5. The ESA program does not primarily benefit the wealthy.ESA families come from across the income spectrum, and taxpayers already fund public education for high-income families without income limits.
6. Most Arizona private schools are financially accessible with ESAs.The majority of private schools have tuition near or within the value of the ESA award, opening the door to families of modest means.
7. ESAs include strict accountability and guardrails.Families must document purchases, comply with audits, and follow clear statutory restrictions on how funds may be used.
8. ESAs lead to better outcomes for children. Studies have found that programs like ESAs lead to better outcomes for the students who participate. Findingsfrom similar programs include a 12% increase in college enrollment rates among participants. Studies also find long-term improvements in math and reading scores among students who’ve participated in similar scholarship programs AND that even kids who stay in public schools enjoy “improvements in their reading and math test scores” when their state adopted education freedom programs.

There is no way to predict with any degree of certainty what the result of this effort will be. Based on history, the best guess is that the controversy will continue regardless of the outcome.