Arizona’s voucher experiment hurting high-performing public districts

PHOENIX — When former Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law Arizona’s landmark school voucher program in summer 2022, he boasted: “Our kids will no longer be stuck in underperforming schools.”

Ducey, who left office the following year because of term limits, doubled down on that claim in March.

That’s when he was invited to Texas to promote that state’s voucher program, largely modeled after the Arizona program.

“These kids are trapped in failing public schools, and it’s time to set these families free,” Ducey said, sitting beside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

However, a 12News investigation has found that many of the best public districts and charter schools in Arizona are among the biggest losers when it comes to vouchers. That’s because families are taking their kids out of those schools and using vouchers for private or home schooling.

Those public schools are losing millions of dollars in state money with the loss of students, resulting in layoffs in some cases.

The 12News I-Team is examining the impact of Arizona’s nearly three-year-old voucher experiment that is projected to cost taxpayers $1 billion this upcoming school year.

The review comes as the Republican-controlled Legislature later this month wants to enshrine vouchers in the state Constitution, making them a permanent fixture in the state’s education system.

A typical voucher – also called an Empowerment Scholarship Account – is between $7,000 and $8,000 for private school, home schooling, therapy, or supplies.

12NEWS analyzed state and federal public records and found 45 percent of the nearly 87,000 students enrolled in the Arizona voucher program were never in public schools.

That means taxpayers are now picking up the tab for kids they never had to pay for before the voucher expansion in 2022.

“This is the privatization of education,” said Beth Lewis, who leads the 20,000-member Save Our Schools Arizona.

She adds that vouchers are “setting up a whole new system of education that creates a two-tiered system for winners and losers.”

For those who are leaving public schools, Lewis questioned whether families are actually fleeing underperforming schools.

“I don’t want to say that that doesn’t ever happen, but only 1 percent of Arizona schools are rated ‘F’ by the state’s letter grading system,” Lewis said. “We know that most of the vouchers are going to rich kids.”

State Department of Education records show thousands of kids are leaving some of the highest-rated districts and charter schools in Arizona.

12News found the top five school districts losing students who left for vouchers are: Mesa, Deer Valley, Chandler, Peoria and Scottsdale.

Those districts, except Mesa, have ‘A’ letter grades, according to the Arizona Department of Education.

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Mesa is a ‘B-rated’ district, and it has cut nearly 150 positions because of declining enrollment.

When it comes to charter schools, Edkey Inc., which has a school that caters to homeless students and another for deaf children, was the biggest loser, with more than 2,100 students leaving for vouchers.

Edkey Board Chairwoman Mary Gifford said most of the voucher departures occurred when Prenda, a microschool company, decided to end its partnership with Edkey and took the kids.

Edkey, in total, operates 16 schools. 

Not one has a ‘F’ letter grade, while two have ‘D’ grades, four have ‘C’ grades, nine have ‘B’ grades, and one (Pathfinder Academy) has an ‘A’ letter grade, records show.

Then there’s Basis Charter Schools.

Ducey, during his eight years as governor, routinely praised this charter operator – and for good reason.

U.S. News and World Report regularly rates Basis as having some of the best schools in America.

In fact, the Basis Peoria campus last year was rated the No. 1 high school in the United States.

Yet, more than 400 Basis kids have left for vouchers.

“Parents sometimes leave because they’re sick of school districts where the school boards are dominated by left-wing people,” State Schools Chief Tom Horne said.

Horne also told 12News: “You have a conservative community, but a left-wing school board that emphasizes things like DEI, which I’m fighting now, critical race theory, transsexual, things that people object to, boys’ and girls’ bathrooms and so on, and so I think that’s a big explanation.”

12News attempted to reach Ducey through two of his chiefs of staff. Calls and texts to Kirk Adams and Daniel Scarpinato were not returned.

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