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Homeschool ESA Moms Sue to Stop Government Overreach

Aguirre v. State of Arizona

Case Status

Date Filed

September 23, 2024

Last Step

Filed complaint.

Next Step

Await government’s response.

Case Overview

The Arizona Department of Education, at the behest of an Attorney General hostile to educational choice, is refusing to allow parents in the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program to use their ESA funds on supplementary educational materials unless they justify every purchase with a “curriculum nexus”—i.e., identifying a curriculum document that explicitly calls for that specific material.

For Velia Aguirre and Rosemary McAtee—two Arizona mothers in the ESA program—this arbitrary new policy means the Department is refusing to let them use ESA funds on common-sense educational items like books, pencils, and erasers, simply because the curricula they use don’t explicitly list these items.

Arizona law entitles ESA families to use their funds on “supplementary materials” for their children’s education, regardless of whether those materials appear on some curriculum document. Even the Department’s own Parent Handbook includes a non-exhaustive list of “approved supplemental materials” that “do not require curriculum” because they are “generally known to be educational items.”

The Goldwater Institute is suing on behalf of Ms. Aguirre and Ms. McAtee, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to vindicate Arizona parents’ right to use ESA funds for common-sense educational purchases without having to jump through bureaucratic hoops and complete arbitrary paperwork every time they buy new materials for their children.

Case Logistics

The Goldwater Institute is representing Ms. Aguirre and Ms. Rose in a lawsuit against the State of Arizona, the Arizona Department of Education, and Superintendent Tom Horne, who oversees the Department and who has been named in the lawsuit in his official capacity only.

The case is Aguirre v. State of Arizona. The complaint was filed September 23, 2024, in Maricopa County Superior Court, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief against the Defendants.

Case Documents

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