I-Team: Which areas have benefitted the most from ESAs?

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — The state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, or vouchers, were supposed to level the playing field for public education in Arizona.

However, a 12News investigation found the state’s nearly 87,000 vouchers and counting are primarily helping families in wealthy neighborhoods – including Paradise Valley, which is zip code 85253.

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It’s a community of some of Arizona’s most rich and famous.

According to Zillow, a typical home in zip code 85253 is at least $3 million. The median household income — one of the highest in the state — is $182,150, according to U.S. Census data.

That’s more than double what a typical Arizona family makes.

In that zip code, more than 700 kids have ESAs. That’s a voucher for one in almost every 10 homes.

This zip code is not unique for Arizona’s $1 billion education experiment.

A 12News investigation based on state and federal public records found:

• Almost 62 percent of all vouchers go to homes making more than the median household income of $76,872.
• More than one-third go to homes making more than $100,000 a year.
• At least 45 percent of all kids getting vouchers today were never in Arizona public schools to begin with.

How the money is being spent has very few regulations, according to one mom who has used vouchers for her disabled son.

“So, if you are doing a baseball camp, you can call that curriculum… and there’s a form in the ESA handbook that you fill out with your objectives and what you’re going to do, and then you buy supplemental materials to support your study of that curriculum,” said Kathy Boltz, whose son, who has special needs, has had an ESA since 2017.

That’s five years before universal vouchers went into effect.

State records show special needs kids get the most money — up to $47,000 per child — while the typical ESA is between $7,000 to $8,000. 

Former Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed a massive expansion of ESAs in 2022.

Now, anyone in Arizona, regardless of income or special needs, can get the voucher.

“A program that genuinely met the needs of some special education students has been hijacked by special interests who have a really different end goal in mind,” Boltz said.

At the Capitol, the GOP-controlled Legislature wants to take Arizona’s education experiment a step further by enshrining it in the state constitution.

State Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) notes that the ESA program began small with children with disabilities, and it slowly expanded.

“There were military families. There were children who were in failing school districts,” said Kavanagh, a longtime state lawmaker who writes the budget in the Senate. “But, you know what, every child has a right to educational choice. So, everyone gets it.”

Kavanagh is also one of the biggest ESA supporters at the Legislature.

“Education is the responsibility of the state government. We will educate all children,” he said.

That commitment has come with a cost.

ESAs have grown from $176 million in fiscal year 2022 to at least $1 billion this upcoming academic year, according to the state Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

State Schools Chief Tom Horne says that’s just fine.

“If somebody is in a private school or in a home school situation and they find out that money’s available, that they would take advantage of it. That’s what I would expect,” he said.

Horne also said the program is open to everyone.

“We don’t ask them for their income, and so you can have zip codes that have high average incomes,” he said.