Both the executive director and operations director of Arizona’s school choice program resigned on Monday.
In a statement, former executive director Christine Accurso said she accomplished her goal of getting the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program “back on track and functioning well.” Accurso indicated that she would be taking on other opportunities in school choice activism.
“I hired, trained, and implemented a full staff of competent, professional people who love the program and will carry it forward,” said Accurso. “I achieved much of what I set out to accomplish, but it is time for me to move on and pursue opportunities to engage citizens, especially parents, to fight for school choice and the other issues they believe in, for the future of our state and of our nation.”
In a statement, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) announced John Ward as Accurso’s replacement. Ward served as an ADE internal auditor and previously worked within the Auditor General’s Office.
Former operations director and vendor liaison, Linda Rizzo, also resigned. Rizzo also served as a regional director for the Arizona Federation of Republican Women.
ADE loosely echoed Accurso’s reasoning for her departure in their explanation of her resignation, crediting her for “unprecedented growth” within the ESA Program.
Superintendent Tom Horne appointed Accurso to the position last November. Horne selected Accurso for her knowledge and experience with the ESA Program, as well as her advocacy to universalize its opportunities. As a member of the ESA Program herself, she was a constant advocate for Horne’s election.
Last year, Accurso led the Decline to Sign movement: a counter-movement to the Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ) ballot initiative to overturn legislation that universalized school choice. As part of her advocacy, Accurso discovered that SOSAZ overreported the number of signatures they collected for the ballot initiative. Accurso’s publicization of this discovery prompted an expedited review of the signature count.
Over the last few years, Accurso also raised awareness of the unresponsive ESA Program helpline.
In January, Accurso told AZ Free News about issues inherited from the prior superintendent’s administration indicating neglect of the ESA Program.
Over 60,500 students now participate in the ESA Program as of Monday. Ward has estimated that the ESA Program will reach 100,000 applicants by next July.
With the double departure from the ESA Program, Democratic leaders highlighted weaknesses of the program.
On Monday, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced a renewed focus on investigating ESA Program fraud and loss of federal discrimination protections concerning disabilities and educational records. Mayes encouraged members of the public to report cases of fraud by ESA vendors or private schools.
On Tuesday, Gov. Katie Hobbs’ Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) released a report projecting a budget deficit of $319.8 million next fiscal year with the ESA Program costing about $943.8 million annually by the next fiscal year. Hobbs alleged the ESA Program would “bankrupt” the state.
“[T]his program is unsustainable and does not save taxpayers money,” said Hobbs. “We must bring transparency and accountability to this program to ensure school vouchers don’t bankrupt our state.”
The OSPB disputed ADE’s claim that the ESA Program costs less to taxpayers since it pulls children from public schools, noting that about 40,400 non-public school students would receive funding where before they hadn’t. The OSPB also claimed that individual student payouts for the ESA Program are more costly than what public schools pay.
“The ESA program is unaccountable and overfunded,” stated the OSPB.
The governor’s team asked for ADE to implement academic testing requirements and audits for schools accepting ESA funding, requiring staff to be fingerprinted, and requiring students to attend a public school prior to enrollment.
The ESA Program admittance requires at least 45 days of attendance at a public school.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Arizona’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction and Democrat Attorney General are again at opposite ends of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
On Monday, Superintendent Tom Horne responded to Attorney General Mayes’ recent comments about the ESA program, setting his department’s record straight.
Earlier in the day, Mayes issued a press release to “provide information about rights forfeited leaving the public school system.” The Attorney General first addressed parents of children with disabilities, stating, “Families should not be denied admission or kicked out of private schools because of a child’s disabilities. To make matters worse, private schools often refuse to share the educational records behind those decisions Because Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) don’t apply to private schools, families have no recourse under federal law. It’s important for Arizona families to be aware of the rights they give up when they leave the public school system.”
Horne pushed back on the Attorney General’s notice, saying, “(Mayes) raised several issues, one of which centers on special education students. Under the ESA program, special education students receive the same funding as they would attending a public school.”
Mayes broached another issue on her consumer alert – this one about the ESA program and its vendors as a whole. The Attorney General’s Office wrote, “If using ESA funds for private school or schooling at home is the preferred educational choice, families should make sure they choose reputable schools and vendors. Even still, families should know that when they accept an ESA, they lose protections from discrimination related to a child’s learning abilities, religion and sexual orientation.”
The Attorney General said, “As a mom, I know how important a child’s education is and I know that, as parents, we all want what is best for our children. I want families to know that if vendors or private schools take advantage of this, the Attorney General’s Office will investigate to the fullest extent of our authority.”
Horne didn’t leave this part of Mayes’ release alone either, making sure onlookers understood his administration is dedicated to following the law. Horne stated, “In regards to the other concerns raised, under my Democrat predecessor as schools chief, the law was not strictly followed and ESA funds were used for non-educational purposes. One of my first acts when I took office was to hire from the Arizona Auditor General an internal auditor for the Department of Education. This person makes sure that every ESA transaction is conducted according to the law and all funding is used appropriately. There have been significant protests against me from people who were used to the old lax system, but I am insisting that every law is strictly followed and that every penny of these funds is used for valid educational purposes.”
The state’s top prosecutor received accolades for her statements from at least one Democrat legislator, Representative Nancy Gutierrez, who tweeted, “Thank you Attorney General Mayes for making it clear that private schools do not give students and families the same rights as public schools.”
The Arizona school chief’s response to Mayes follows two other significant battles between the two since they entered office this past January. Just last week, Horne called a recent formal opinion from Attorney General Mayes on a Structured English Immersion law “ideologically driven.” He also pushed back against Mayes when she went on television to say that “there are no controls” on the ESA program, “no accountability,” that “they” (presumably parents) are “spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money,” that this “needs to be looked at,” and that it’s (her) “responsibility to do that” as Arizona’s “top law enforcement officer.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Americans’ support for school choice is on the rise.
A recent poll from Real Clear Opinion Research showed that school choice has the support of 71% of the 1,000 registered voters who participated in that survey. This number was a seven-point increase from an April 2020 poll.
In this June 27-30 poll, support for school choice came from 80% of Republican voters, 66% of Democrat voters, and 69% of Independent voters. Though the Republican and Democrat support was up from April 2020, the 9% increase in favor from Independents was the most among the political parties.
The question presented to voters on the survey was as follows: “School choices gives parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs. Generally speaking, would you say you support or oppose the concept of school choice?”
The CEO of American Federation for Children, Tommy Schultz, lauded the news about the growing support for school choice around the country, saying, “School choice support is here to stay, and politicians who ignore this reality do so at their own peril. Parents are the new interest group in town, and legislators would be wise to keep responding to their needs. The days of the old one-size-fits-all model are numbered, welcome news for the countless students who need something different to learn and thrive. AFC is thrilled to continue standing behind parents as they gain more options for their children’s education.”
Arizona has been at the front lines of the surge in school choice support. Last year, the Republican-led Legislature passed a historic expansion of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program, allowing any child in K-12 to apply. According to a June 30 update from the Executive Director of the ESA Program, Christine Accurso, 62,005 Arizona students have now been enrolled.
That same update also showed that the program, under the direction of Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, had largely caught up with the backlog and influx of reimbursements to ESA account holders. As of June 30, the ESA Program only had 1,195 Reimbursement Orders in the queue – down from 24,409 on February 8.
When asked about the increasing support for school choice in Arizona and around the nation, Superintendent Horne told AZ Free News, “We have a lot of excellent public schools in Arizona. But no matter how good a public school is, it may not be able to meet the needs of all students. Rich parents have always had the ability to choose the best school to meet the needs of each of their children and people at all economic levels should have the same ability. In addition, competition improves public schools. The United States has been prosperous, and the Soviet Union was poor, because we had competition which drives people to do their best, while they were a government monopoly. As they used to say in Poland, ‘We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.’ The same applies in education. Competition causes everyone to do better.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Advocates of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) are responding to recent attacks on the program.
Last week, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs launched a political assault on ESAs, reacting to a recent memo from the Arizona Department of Education, which detailed the expected cost for the upcoming fiscal year. Hobbs tweeted, “the school voucher program in its current form is not sustainable, and Republican legislators need to explain why they are forcing this runaway spending on Arizona taxpayers. We need to bring an end to this out of control and unaccountable spending, and I will work tirelessly to make that happen.”
The first-year governor has been working tirelessly to assuage angry members of her own party since she agreed to a negotiated state budget last month with Republican leaders of the Arizona House and Senate. Though she railed against ESAs on the campaign trail and leading up to the budget compromise, Hobbs signed the package that left the historic school choice expansion untouched and uncapped, leaving Democrats and interest groups opposed to ESAs to question her commitment to adhere to such a prominent platform of her administration.
Proponents of Arizona’s ESA program were ready for Hobbs’ – and other Democrats’ – attack, publishing national and local opinion pieces to assure people of the facts. Jason Bedrick and Corey DeAngelis, two national leaders of the school choice movement, wrote a commentary for the Wall Street Journal, entitled “School Choice Saves Arizona Money.” The advocates clarified the cost for ESAs in Fiscal Year 2024 ($900 million) “is barely 2% of total Arizona state spending of $80.5 billion in 2022. Arizona public schools spend about $14,000 per pupil, or $1.4 billion for 100,000 students. If the department’s enrollment projection is reached, school choice would serve roughly 8% of Arizona’s students for 6% of the $15 billion that Arizona will spend on public schools.”
They pointed to a report published by the Common Sense Institute, which found that “current enrollment in Arizona public district and charter schools combined is over 80,000 students below pre-pandemic projections,” saving Arizona $639 million.
Another opinion piece, written by Jon Gabriel for the Arizona Republic, stressed that “the critics of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts keep claiming the program is too expensive. At the same time, they insist the state spend far, far more on education.” Gabriel highlights that “an ESA student is only allowed 90% what that student would receive in a traditional public school,” arguing that Democrats “are galled to see education funding going directly to students and parents instead of to bloated public school administrations and teachers’ unions.”
Matthew Ladner took his defense of ESAs to Twitter to make a comparison with the Mesa Unified School Direct. He posted, “Mesa Unified was budgeted for $1.3 billion last year to educate 54,000 students. I’m having a hard time getting too excited about less money for 100,000 students. Let’s call ESA ‘a bargain for taxpayers.’”
As of the Arizona Department of Education’s update on June 2, 58,253 students are currently enrolled in ESAs.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Days after Republican legislators warned of possible ethical repercussions over Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes’ public statements against the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program, a private citizen filed a formal complaint against Arizona’s top prosecutor.
On May 31, according to a document received and reviewed by AZ Free News, Charlie Schinke of Chandler filed a charge against Attorney General Mayes with the State Bar of Arizona.
Schinke requests “that the Bar Counsel initiate an investigation to determine whether attorney (and Attorney General) Kristin K. Mayes has breached the foundational duties of loyalty and confidentiality she owes to her clients, in violation of Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct 1.6 and 1.7.” The Chandler resident writes, “In just the last month, Ms. Mayes appeared on television to threaten one of her clients with an investigation that could carry potential criminal dimensions, and publicly admonished another client in letters that she distributed in a press release.” He asserts that “the Attorney General serves state agencies as a counselor and confidante; she does not (and cannot) control, regulate or punish them.”
The two allegations that Schinke uses to base his complaint, are Mayes’ April 17 letter to Director Thomas Buschatzke of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, where she “launched into an extended critique of the agency’s studies of so-called active management areas and demanded that Director Buschatzke supply her with documentation evidencing the agency’s compliance with its responsibilities;” and her May 21 interview, in which Mayes “announced that her office ‘is going to be looking at fraud, waste and abuse in the universal school voucher program.’”
Schinke cites Arizona case law that reflects the lawful containment of the Attorney General’s duties, highlighting a portion of Brnovich v. Arizona Board of Regents, which says, “In Arizona, unlike some other states, the Attorney General has no inherent or common law authority… [T]he authority of the Attorney General must be found in statute.” He writes that “the legislature has designated the Attorney General the ‘chief legal officer of the state,’ and in that capacity she is ‘the legal advisor of the departments of this state and [must] render such legal services as the departments require.’”
The author of the complaint ends his letter to the State Bar with two charges, stating, “Attorney General Mayes’ public criticisms of, and threats to investigate her clients are inconsistent with her duties of confidentiality and loyalty.”
Schinke reminded the Bar about a previous case it considered. In that case, former Attorney General Mark Brnovich faced charges due to allegations that “his public criticisms of, and adverse legal actions against, the agency violated his ethical responsibilities.” Schinke ends his letter, pleading with the Bar to exercise the “same scrutiny” with Attorney General Mayes “that her predecessor received,” adding a line about the “Bar’s self-professed commitment to non-partisanship.”
Schinke’s letter comes just six days after a bicameral group of Republican lawmakers, led by Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma, transmitted a letter to Mayes, demanding that she “publicly retract (her) patently false statements attacking ESAs and impugning the motives of thousands of parents that use ESAs to provide the best education for their children.” In their letter, the legislators write: “Of course, Arizona’s Ethical Rules do not tolerate the initiation of criminal proceedings absent probable cause to believe that any parent has committed a crime. See Arizona Ethical Rule 3.8 (listing the special ethical responsibilities of a prosecutor). Further, it would raise ethical questions if a government attorney were to publicly insinuate that a current client is engaging in misconduct with no factual basis. See, e.g., Arizona Ethical Rule 1.7 (imposing a duty of loyalty to a current client).”
Mayes does not appear to have publicly commented on the complaint.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.