May 31, 2019
By Matt Beienburg
With Arizona’s latest
legislative session now in the books, the state’s K-12 system is again poised
to receive major funding increases this fall. From an extra $165 million to
continue phasing in the “20×2020” teacher pay raise plan, to a new $68 million
of accelerated “additional assistance” funding restorations (on top of another
$168 million that was already set to be restored), to an additional $30 million
for results based funding and $20 million for school resource officers and counselors…there
is quite a list.
Of course, as research
from even left-leaning think tanks has made clear, additional dollars are no
cure-all in education, and in fact, it is often lower-cost alternative pathways
in which students have thrived
most. So it’s encouraging that in addition to big-ticket public school funding
increases, the Arizona Legislature also approved two bills that will bring
relief to families participating in a different avenue of Arizona’s K-12
landscape: the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
These families—who receive
a portion of what would have been spent on their children in a public school
setting to purchase instructional services and materials for their kids—have often
found themselves on the wrong end of demand letters from the Arizona Department
of Education (ADE) months after submitting receipts for purchases they had made
in good faith.
Notably, for example,
several families from the Navajo reservation recently received threats of
expulsion from the ESA program and demands to repay money they’d used to send
their students to a private school, because it happened to fall about a quarter
mile outside the Arizona state line in New Mexico. (While ESA statute requires
that tuition payments go to schools located within Arizona, ADE had approved similar
payments in the past, leaving the parents to rather reasonably conclude they
were following the rules.)
Thanks to efforts
from tribal leaders, state legislators, and organizations like the American
Federation for Children, however, these families will receive at least
temporary reprieve. Under the newly passed HB 2758,
these families will have their ESA status restored, will be held harmless from
the financial nightmare they were originally presented with, and will be able
to continue attending their school for the next academic year.
It is unfortunate,
however, that certain lawmakers and those who are against the ESA program so
oppose anything they consider “expansion” that they demanded these children not
be allowed to continue in their same school in years after. And it’s perhaps
even more disappointing that many of these same lawmakers seemingly found other
ESA families throughout Arizona undeserving of similar protections when they
receive surprise bills for purchases they had likewise been led to believe were
allowable.
There is some good
news for all of these remaining families as well, however. HB 2749
establishes a new requirement that ADE contract with a financial management
firm to help administer the ESA program. Bringing in a provider with expertise
in processing transactions offers parents hope for a streamlined system in
which their ESA purchases will be more easily and rapidly verified and approved,
hopefully eliminating troubling situations for families before they arise.
Clearly, ESA families
need and deserve additional relief from the headaches and uncertainties that
many have dealt with when navigating the program’s rules. Yet even as much
remains to be done, it is worth celebrating not only the continued strength of
Arizona’s ESA program and the families who make it up, but also the increasing
access to ESA programs throughout the country.
For example, families
who support school choice should be gladdened to see progress made recently in
Tennessee, where Governor Bill Lee signed
an ESA expansion for low-income students in struggling Memphis and Nashville-area
schools. While limited in many ways—such as permitting more narrow uses of
funds than other states’ ESA programs—this legislation will help increase
families’ access to educational options and provide their students new
opportunities to learn in an environment right for them.
Likewise, after
teachers’ unions and other activists organized a strike against school choice
measures in West Virginia earlier this year, the state’s Senate unveiled a
renewed effort
this week to provide special needs students access to education savings
accounts in their state.
With presidential candidates
like Bernie Sanders seeking
to choke off school choice opportunities across the country, there’s no doubt that
opponents of ESAs, charter schools, and other educational alternatives aim to
turn back the clock. But thanks to the families and lawmakers championing for
freedom in education around the U.S., we’re still moving forward.
Matt
Beienburg is the Director of Education Policy at the Goldwater Institute.
