Save Our Schools Arizona
Weekly Education Report
56th Legislature, 2nd General Session
Volume 6, Issue 28• Week of July 21, 2024
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AG Mayes Investigates Illegal Voucher Spending
🔥 Big News: Arizona’s Attorney General Kris Mayes is cracking down on illegal misspending in the ESA voucher program and has opened a formal investigation into whether Superintendent Horne’s Arizona Department of Education (ADE) has been unlawfully approving voucher purchases disallowed under Arizona law.
🔎 What’s the investigation? The Attorney General’s Office sent a letter to ADE’s ESA Director John Ward notifying them that they intended to investigate the ADE for “public monies violations” in the ESA voucher program. The letter states that “approving ESA [voucher] funds for materials that have no nexus to the student’s actual curricular needs contradicts the intent of the program and constitutes a payment of funds made without authorization of law.” (In other words, no, you can’t just use taxpayer funds to buy anything you want if it doesn’t have a real educational purpose. Imagine that!)
The letter demanded that the ADE stop approving voucher expenses without requiring an ADE-approved curriculum. ADE Director Ward confirmed that the “ADE will comply” with the order — tacitly admitting that Horne’s ADE understands its approvals process has gone far beyond what the law allows.
🧐 How long has this been going on? While Ward’s letter claims that these practices “predate the current administration,” the State Board of Education did not adopt the ESA Parent Handbook language allowing the purchase of “supplemental materials without documentation” until April 2023, under Horne’s direction and heavily influenced by the DeVos-founded American Federation for Children. Save Our Schools Arizona has long been raising concerns about these illegal purchases, recently highlighting millions of voucher dollars spent on LEGO sets worth hundreds of dollars and over $100 million on non-educational purchases approved without review from the department that it is attached to appropriate curriculum.
So… no more Legos? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Now, parents using the voucher are scurrying to use AI tools like ChatGPT to create “curriculum” that justifies purchases like refrigerators (to “teach” animal dissection) and ice-making appliances (to “teach” the states of matter). Check out the screenshots below if you don’t believe us. 🙄 Because the legislation that created universal vouchers was written so loosely, bad actors will continue to abuse the program until the legislature reins it in with significant, meaningful reforms. And we are convinced, like Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts, that that won’t happen until Arizona elects a new legislature.
🔥Big News: Arizona’s Attorney General Kris Mayes is cracking down on illegal misspending in the ESA voucher program and has opened a formal investigation into whether Superintendent Horne’s Arizona Department of Education (ADE) has been unlawfully approving voucher purchases disallowed under Arizona law.
🔎What’s the investigation? The Attorney General’s Office sent a letter to ADE’s ESA Director John Ward notifying them that they intended to investigate the ADE for “public monies violations” in the ESA voucher program. The letter states that “approving ESA [voucher] funds for materials that have no nexus to the student’s actual curricular needs contradicts the intent of the program and constitutes a payment of funds made without authorization of law.” (In other words, no, you can’t just use taxpayer funds to buy anything you want if it doesn’t have a real educational purpose. Imagine that!)
The letter demanded that the ADE stop approving voucher expenses without requiring an ADE-approved curriculum. ADE Director Ward confirmed that the “ADE will comply” with the order — tacitly admitting that Horne’s ADE understands its approvals process has gone far beyond what the law allows.
🧐How long has this been going on? While Ward’s letter claims that these practices “predate the current administration,” the State Board of Education did not adopt the ESA Parent Handbook language allowing the purchase of “supplemental materials without documentation” until April 2023, under Horne’s direction and heavily influenced by the DeVos-founded American Federation for Children. Save Our Schools Arizona has long been raising concerns about these illegal purchases, recently highlighting millions of voucher dollars spent on LEGO sets worth hundreds of dollars and over $100 million on non-educational purchases approved without review from the department that it is attached to appropriate curriculum.
So… no more Legos? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Now, parents using the voucher are scurrying to use AI tools like ChatGPT to create “curriculum” that justifies purchases like refrigerators (to “teach” animal dissection) and ice-making appliances (to “teach” the states of matter). Check out the screenshots below if you don’t believe us. 🙄 Because the legislation that created universal vouchers was written so loosely, bad actors will continue to abuse the program until the legislature reins it in with significant, meaningful reforms. And we are convinced, like Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts, that that won’t happen until Arizona elects a new legislature.
Primary Election Reminder! 🗳️
Don’t forget! Put your primary ballot in the mail by THIS TUESDAY, July 23 so your vote will be counted. Not sure on legislative races? Check out our endorsements HERE!
Take Action!
Don’t panic or fret for the future of our democracy — take action to DO something about it! Join us, we are great fun and take the time to train new volunteers with love and care ❤️
See full details and register for upcoming events!
Tuesday, July 23 – 5:30 – 7:30pm with Rep. Mariana Sandoval!!
Thursday, July 25 – 5:30 – 7:30pm with Rep. Oscar De Los Santos!!
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Vote 4 Public Ed Shop
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Voucher Watch
Arizona, the Cautionary Tale Against Vouchers: Arizona was featured in an incredible article from the investigative journalists at ProPublica, which caught major national attention this week.
Below are the excerpted highlights. We hope you’ll read the whole article here.
💰 Vouchers are Budget Busters: Arizona’s voucher experiment has since precipitated a budget meltdown. The state this year faced a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, much of which was a result of new voucher spending. Last fiscal year alone, the price tag of universal vouchers in Arizona skyrocketed from an original official estimate of just under $65 million to roughly $332 million, the Grand Canyon analysis found; another $429 million in costs is expected this year. As a result of all this unexpected spending, alongside some recent revenue losses, Arizona is now having to make deep cuts to a wide swath of critical state programs and projects. The pain of these cuts will be felt by average Arizonans who may or may not have school-aged children.
❌ Fact-checking Goldwater: The Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank that has long helped craft voucher legislation in Arizona, claimed in its promotional materials at the time that universal vouchers would “save taxpayers thousands per student, millions statewide.” Families that received the new cash, the institute said, would be educating their kids “for less than it would cost taxpayers if they were in the public school system.” But as it turns out, the parents most likely to apply for these vouchers are the ones who were already sending their kids to private school or homeschooling. They use the dollars to subsidize what they were already paying for. The result is new money coming out of the state budget. After all, the public wasn’t paying for private school kids’ tuition before.
😡 Ducey Doubles Down on Voucher Disaster: A spokesperson for Arizona’s former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who signed the universal voucher program into law, said that “not only does Gov. Ducey have no regrets about ESA expansion, he considers it one of his finest achievements and a legacy accomplishment.”
😢 Vouchers Hurt Our Students: Beth Lewis, director of Save Our Schools Arizona, said only a small amount of the new spending on private schools and homeschooling is going toward poor children, which means that universal vouchers are exacerbating the already extreme educational inequalities in Arizona. The state ranks 49th in the country in per-pupil public school funding, and as a result, year after year, district schools in lower-income areas are plagued by some of the nation’s worst staffing ratios and largest class sizes.
Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on vouchers to help kids who are already going to private school keep going to private school won’t just sink the budget, Lewis said. It’s funding that’s not going to the public schools, keeping them from becoming what they could and should be.
Public School Proud!
Check out some incredible pictures and stories from across the state that make us #PublicSchoolProud!
Know a story you think we should spotlight? Send an email to tyler@sosarizona.org to let us know!
🎨 Keizlyn Kith Guanco is a sophomore at Page High School with a special talent for painting large, colorful murals. Over the summer break she was commissioned by Page Unified School District to paint vibrant, cheerful murals on the cafeteria walls at Lake View Primary and Desert View Intermediate, making their shared space vibrant and inviting. Way to go!
🎓 A joint initiative with Chandler-Gilbert Community College & Chandler Education Foundation, Destination College gives elementary students from 9 CUSD schools an opportunity to experience a college environment for 3 weeks over the summer, exploring coding, robotics, and more.
🎵Maricopa Unified Desert Sunrise High School held their first-ever marching band camp this past week. Students learned the fundamentals of marching, spinning, dancing, and playing their instruments. Daily team-building activities established a foundation for a supportive, enjoyable, and high-achieving band culture!
We are excited to announce SOSAZ’s *NEW* Public Education Defense Fund, which will protect Arizona students’ right to a safe, quality, accessible public school in their community.
Every dollar contributed to this fund will go directly towards electing pro-public education candidates up and down the 2024 ballot, from school board to the state legislature.
Donate to SOSAZ’s Public Education Defense Fund Today!
Building a strong Public Education Defense Fund is essential to fighting back against increasingly dangerous political agendas that threaten our students’ right to learn in safety, acquire a truthful understanding of science and history, and succeed in excellent public schools.
Your contributions will help us recruit, elect, and support public education champions running for local school boards and the Arizona state legislature, shifting the balance of power at the Arizona state legislature towards one that will prioritize, fund, and defend Arizona’s public school students, educators, and classrooms.
Thank you for helping us work toward a future where a high-quality, fully-funded public education is available to all Arizona students.
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