In the wake of a report described as “fake news” regarding the alleged misspending of school choice dollars by Arizona families, on Thursday, Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced that Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) marketplace platforms must be updated and improved to protect taxpayer dollars.
The announcement was welcomed by school choice advocates.
“This is a great idea,” posted Jason Bedrick, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “The ESA is already an incredibly accountable program with only 0.3% fraud or egregious spending, but ClassWallet’s Marketplace platform could do more to prevent the purchase of obviously unallowed items, particularly gift cards. Some of their competitors have shown that they can deliver a high degree of accountability without sacrificing user-friendliness for ESA families. It’s time to explore all available options and choose what’s best for AZ families.”
https://twitter.com/JasonBedrick/status/2034691978492092628
The Arizona State Treasurer’s Office is responsible for managing the contract with the financial platform vendor that operates the portal through which Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) holders submit reimbursement requests and process payments for allowable expenses.
“It is imperative that the State of Arizona’s ESA platform vendor operates effectively, provides a user‑friendly system for Arizona families and verifies that expenditures comply with Arizona law, said Yee in a press release. “Today I directed the Arizona State Treasurer’s Office to publish a formal Request for Information (RFI) to invite potential vendors to share input on new and existing systems, capabilities, and technology platforms to support Arizona’s growing ESA program. The RFI process provides my office insight into the ESA market trends and technological capabilities needed to effectively prepare for the ESA Financial Solutions Request for Proposal (RFP).”
“As the state’s Chief Financial Officer, safeguarding taxpayer dollars is my highest priority. The goal of this RFI is to identify the platform best suited to serve the 102,000 Arizona families currently benefiting from one of the nation’s premier ESA programs,” said Yee. “If there is a financial platform, or are updates to the current platform, that can provide families ESA program funds efficiently and identify any misspending or misuse, then Arizona taxpayers deserve to use that system.”
Yee says her office is “committed to ensuring that the marketplace vendor platform is as efficient as possible in delivering necessary funds to ESA families for qualified expenses.”
This RFP process, according to Yee, would invite ESA marketplace vendor programs to share how their innovations, including modern platform design, automation, and AI driven tools, could strengthen Arizona’s ESA program.
As with other state agencies that contract for financial services, the Arizona State Treasurer’s Office does not have authority over the day-to-day operations of the ESA program. That responsibility lies solely with the Arizona Department of Education.
The Arizona State Treasurer’s Office plans to issue this RFI in the coming weeks and encourages companies to share how their marketplace platforms can best serve the people of Arizona and ESA families.
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