Arizona lawmakers considering using taxpayer money to pay for out-of-state private schools

The Arizona Legislature is considering allowing taxpayer money to be used for private-school tuition outside the state through its Empowerment Scholarship Account program. 

The proposal comes in response to concerns amplified by the American Federation for Children — the school choice advocacy group founded by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos — that some students in Window Rock might be kicked out of Arizona's empowerment scholarship program (ESA) because they had used the public money to pay private school tuition in New Mexico.

The Arizona Department of Education sent letters to the families of those students, who live on the Navajo Nation, rescinding their participation in the ESA program, according to a statement Saturday from House Majority Leader Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, and Senate Majority Leader Rick Gray, R-Sun City. The lawmakers said they would introduce legislation to prevent that from happening.

“We will be introducing legislation as soon as possible to allow these kids to continue to utilize their ESAs," their statement said. "While details are still being finalized, we have bipartisan support in both the House and Senate to correct this outrage. There is no greater form of government abuse than giving someone an approval only to later revoke it and punish them for relying on that approval. No student should have to pay for a bureaucratic error, and no family should have to live with the fear that they have endured."

The ESA school voucher-like program allows Arizona parents to use taxpayer money to send their children to private schools if they fall into one of six categories, including attending a failing school, being a foster child, or living on an Indian reservation. Parents are prohibited from using the money on private schools outside Arizona.

The Legislature in 2017 approved a massive expansion of the ESA program that would have allowed all 1.1 million public-school students to apply. But a mostly grassroots coalition called Save Our Schools Arizona gathered enough signatures to challenge the law, and in November 2018 Arizona voted, by a 65 to 35 percent margin, to reject the expansion.

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Still, Republican lawmakers have appeared undeterred by that defeat at the ballot box, and this year filed five bills to amend the ESA program. Three of them would have expanded it.

One of those bills could be used as the vehicle to allow ESA payments to private schools outside Arizona using a so-called strike-everything amendment, which guts an already-introduced bill and replaces its language with new language.

Since voters rejected expanding ESAs, a key issue is whether lawmakers and other interests would see allowing the payment of Arizona taxpayer money to private schools outside the state as an expansion.

MORE:2nd Rep. bill proposes to expand AZ voucher program after voters say 'no'

A spokesman for House Republican lawmakers said Petersen was not available to discuss his bill Saturday night. He said more details should be known next week.

“Legislators are still gathering information on how this situation was created and are focused on fixing it before the session ends,” Matt Specht wrote in an email to The Arizona Republic. “The details of the legislation are still being discussed, but there’s bipartisan support to fix this in a way that doesn’t punish those families for simply pursuing a better education for their children, especially after the scholarships had been approved by the department.”

The effort could get wrapped up in broader negotiations over the state budget, as bills detailing the state spending plan for the coming fiscal year are expected to drop on Monday.

An American Federation for Children video said children on the Navajo Nation had been approved by the state to go to private school in New Mexico, but are now being threatened with termination from the program and the prospect of having to repay thousands of dollars to the state. Those claims could not be independently verified on Saturday.

Representatives of state Superintendent Kathy Hoffman did not return calls and emails Saturday.

Gov. Doug Ducey retweeted a school choice advocate on the issue, contending: "Every Arizona student deserves access to a quality education. Parents: send your kids to school on Monday. We’re working closely with @Supt_Hoffman and legislators to resolve this issue for these #AZ students, this session."

Dawn Penich-Thacker, spokeswoman for Save Our Schools, said it appeared that the children on the Navajo reservation were being used by special interests pushing school choice, particularly American Federation for Children.

"It appears they actively recruited Native American families into unknowingly breaking the law (by using ESA at an out-of-state school) and now that the state has discovered the problem, instead of AFC admitting their role and helping the families use existing, legal solutions, they’re doubling down on exploiting them in order to try and rewrite the law." Penich-Thacker said.

She said it appeared to have been set up to advance a national school-privatization agenda.

"It’s concerning to see some of our elected officials backing this manufactured crisis without having the facts," she said. "This is a typical maneuver out of the school-choice playbook: incremental expansion. First special needs, then tribal, and so on year after year until Arizona taxpayers are left with crumbling public schools, a massive teacher shortage and rock-bottom student spending, all so that our tax dollars can subsidize out-of-state private and religious schools."

This is not the first time school-choice advocates in Arizona have been accused of using children as pawns to advance their agenda or been accused of manufacturing victims to move legislation forward.

Kate Brophy McGee, a Republican senator representing parts of north-central Phoenix, Arcadia and Paradise Valley who has opposed prior ESA expansion efforts, said she didn't view allowing ESA money to be spent at out-of-state private schools as an expansion of the program.

“It’s a clarification of that expansion because the Navajo Nation crosses four states. Some of their residents live in each of those four states, especially when you get up in the Four Corners area. … I saw it as a clarification, modification as a result of something that was caught through an audit.”

She said the Department of Education and families on the reservations “need clarifying legislation and we discussed that.”

She said it was unclear how many families were affected by the Department of Education's decision to stop funding schools outside Arizona and demand parents pay the money back.

“What I see is children being used as pawns for political purposes" by groups on both sides of the issue, Brophy McGee said. She said school choice advocates are saying "look at these poor children" while public school advocates like Save Our Schools are saying the voters have spoken on this.

"I really am torn by that because they really have spoken," she said. "But does that mean these kids, who were approved for an ESA, by virtue of being on the Navajo Nation, that their choice goes away? They become pawns for both sides, and that’s just wrong."

This is a developing story that will continue to be updated. Please check back with azcentral.com for updates.