Governor Katie Hobbs used her State of the State address to launch yet another attack on Arizona’s highly successful Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA), a program that offers every Arizona child access to the education they deserve. The Goldwater Institute is here to set the record straight.
We’ve heard this from Governor Hobbs before: inaccurate claims that ESAs are responsible for declining enrollment in district schools; that new so-called “safeguards” are needed to guard against abuse of ESAs; and of course desperate calls for more public school spending. The governor’s repeated distortions are aimed at undermining ESAs with the ultimate goal of ripping education freedom out of the hands of Arizona families who desperately need educational lifelines for their children.
Here’s the truth about ESAs in Arizona—and why the program needs to be defended, not dismantled.
- ESAs give kids the education they deserve. Today, more than 99,000 Arizona students benefit from the ESA program. Under ESAs, parents receive over $7,000 per child to use for their tuition or other educational needs. That’s half of what our public schools cost taxpayers per student.
- Public school funding has increased, not decreased, with ESAs. Since Arizona expanded ESAs universally in 2022, total state and local funding for public schools has risen by over $2 billion, and inflation-adjusted funding per student is over $500 higher today than before the expansion.
- ESAs are not bankrupting the state. Arizona posted a multibillion-dollar budget surplus in the first year of universal ESAs even after accounting for the increased award amounts, and later budget shortfalls were driven by increased state spending—not ESA costs, which largely offset reduced public-school enrollment.
- ESAs are not driving school closures. Critics blame shuttered schools on ESAs. But the truth is, the drop in public school enrollment is overwhelmingly driven by lower birth rates and families leaving their local (often underperforming) public school districts for different public In the Roosevelt Elementary district, for example, only 102 students who previously attended the district left for an ESA, while 8,440 students (over halfof the kids who live there) have opted out of the school district and fled to different public schools not operated by Roosevelt.
- The ESA program does not primarily benefit the wealthy. ESA families come from across the income spectrum, and taxpayers already fund public education for high-income families without income limits.
- Most Arizona private schools are financially accessible with ESAs. The majority of private schools have tuition near or within the value of the ESA award, opening the door to families of modest means.
- ESAs include strict accountability and guardrails. Families must document purchases, comply with audits, and follow clear statutory restrictions on how funds may be used.
- ESAs lead to better outcomes for children. Studies have found that programs like ESAs lead to better outcomes for the students who participate. Findings from similar programs include a 12% increase in college enrollment rates among participants. Studies also find long-term improvements in math and reading scores among students who’ve participated in similar scholarship programs AND that even kids who stay in public schools enjoy “improvements in their reading and math test scores” when their state adopted education freedom programs.
We can expect Gov. Hobbs to continue her attacks on ESAs. But despite her rhetoric, the truth remains: The ESA program has been a nation-leading success that is allowing Arizona students of all stripes to receive an education that best fits their needs.
To learn more about ESAs, visit SavingAZKids.com and watch this webinar here.
