Arizona Board of Education rejects school voucher ban on luxury items, other changes

The handbook governing how parents and vendors use Arizona's school voucher program will remain unchanged next year after the Arizona State Board of Education rejected a proposal that would have introduced new limitations.

Voucher-holding families told the board Monday that the changes would harm them and service providers and that they weren't afforded adequate opportunity to provide input.

The handbook would have had four substantive changes under the proposal, according to John Ward, the executive director of the Empowerment Scholarship Account program:

• Voucher holders would be barred from applying vouchers strictly for summer use. Loopholes have allowed families to enter the Empowerment Scholarship Account program after the public school year ends, receive two quarters of funding, and then return to public school by the start of the next school year.

• Parents alone would be the custodians of their online voucher accounts, not private schools. Some schools have previously maintained total control over families' Empowerment Scholarship Account program accounts.

• Students with disabilities who need to stay in the program past 12th grade would have to obtain an education plan every year in coordination with an evaluation team. Currently, parents only need to attest to the need for voucher enrollment for additional years.

• Voucher holders could not purchase items "that do not involve a reasonable expense (such as designer items or items whose prices are at or near the highest end of the price range for the type of item)."

Ward said voucher holders recently tried to buy a $15,000 wristwatch, $5,000 massage chairs and $24,000 golf simulators, which in part inspired the proposed crackdown on luxury items.

"The Department of Ed wants to be a very good and prudent steward of this program, and so when there are extravagant purchases being made, it puts the program in a very difficult position," Ward said.

Horne walks back proposal, moves to keep handbook as is

Each year, the Arizona Department of Education must develop an updated Empowerment Scholarship Account handbook that complies with state law. The State Board of Education will then accept or reject the department's recommendations.

Ward said the department's proposal this year was made in communication with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who on Monday introduced a motion to keep handbook language as is and table the changes for another year. The board voted in favor of Horne's motion, meaning the handbook for the 2024-25 school year will be the same as in 2023-24.

Horne said the state board should establish a working group to solicit more feedback from Arizona stakeholders in the meantime.

"I think it's important that we have a full opportunity for everyone to give their input before a decision is made," Horne said.

In previous years, the department held webinar meetings for handbook feedback, Ward said. Those comments were hard to document, he said, so last fall, the department moved to a written format that included monthly emails to Empowerment Scholarship Account parents asking for input. The department also solicited feedback during its quarterly parent advisory committee meetings.

Ward said those efforts resulted in more than 125 comments and most parental feedback was integrated into the proposal.

Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, praised Horne for his decision to reject those changes and delay publication of a new handbook by a year.

"He stands for public input, for transparency in the process," Hoffman said.

Parents, lawmaker push back against voucher program changes

Hoffman, the founder of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, staged a news conference Monday with dozens of voucher-recipient parents to demand the board reject the handbook. Over the weekend, Hoffman, along with former Empowerment Scholarship Account program director Christine Accurso, had rallied voucher parents to protest the handbook's approval.

In a statement on X, Hoffman said the draft handbook has provisions that would limit voucher expenditures even though the Legislature has not set any limits on educational materials or services paid for by the scholarships.

Parents carried those concerns into the board meeting, where they spoke during public comment of a "concerted effort to silence ESA parents" and volunteered for a potential stakeholder feedback group.

Voucher parent Bonita Scales Jenkins said the limitations on allowable items would be detrimental to "artsy" families like hers. The department added footwear to its list of ineligible items and restricted musical instruments to $2,000 or less. That was problematic, she said, because her daughter needs expensive shoes for ballet, and students who excel at their musical craft will need increasingly expensive items to remain competitive.

Another change would require service providers to include their initials, a "paid" stamp and a student's grade level on payment receipts that parents submit for reimbursement. Parents said those requests were impractical in a digital age where invoices are generated electronically.

"The proposed handbook appears to usurp the freedom of the parents and the authority of the lawmakers who put the law into effect," said voucher parent Becky Greene. "I'm concerned this is a lack of transparency that cooperates more with those who aren't invested in the program or its success."

Save Our Schools Arizona, a public education advocacy group that opposed the expansion of Arizona's school voucher program, accused Horne of caving to an intimidation campaign.

"The fact that extremist Republican lawmakers are trying to stand in the way of these bare-bones regulations speaks to their myopic and stubborn unwillingness to listen to voters and ensure transparency of our taxpayer funds," Save Our Schools Executive Director Beth Lewis said in a statement. "It is clear that these extremists are out of touch with voters and will oppose any and all attempts to add accountability to the out-of-control ESA voucher program that will siphon $1 billion a year from Arizona's K-12 schools."

As of Monday, more than 76,500 students were enrolled in the voucher program.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Board of Education rejects limits on ESA school vouchers