The Arizona Department of Education (ADOE) has released data showing state education funding has come in under budget, which should dispel claims that the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program, a universal education savings account program open to all Arizona children, would blow open the state’s education spending.
According to ADOE, Basic State Aid payments for education programs at district and charter schools as well as the ESA program finished the year $4.3 million under budget for Fiscal Year 2024.
“Having a surplus of more than $4 million is proof positive that the critics who have claimed the ESA program will bust the not only the state’s education budget but the entire budget itself were always wrong,” said Tom Horne, the Arizona Superintendent of Education. “It was always a myth, and that myth is utterly demolished. Budget figures are stubborn facts and they do not stand up to the political posturing that ESA critics have consistently and wrongly thrown at the program. The universal ESA scholarships are a vital part of making sure that parents are able to choose the schools that best fit the needs of their children. Having choices such as charter schools, open enrollment for district schools and ESAs are a valuable tool for Arizona parents. As today’s announcement shows, these choices do not result in any part of the budget deficit. It resulted from overly optimistic projections of state revenues. ESAs are enabling parents to find the best schools to meet their children’s needs. No rational person should oppose that.”
The Arizona Joint legislative Budget Committee also found savings in its FY 2025 Appropriations Report, noting that while enrollment in the ESA program was higher than expected, this was offset by declining public school enrollment, both in traditional public schools and charter schools. “With the above forecast adjustments, we estimate the total combined district/charter/ESA enrollment will generate savings of $(352,200) in FY 2024 relative to the enacted budget,” the report stated.
As the Goldwater Institute noted in a blog post, “The entire cumulative increase in spending on ESAs under universal expansion is smaller than the increase in state spending on public schools that state lawmakers authorized over the same period, despite enrollment in Arizona’s traditional public district schools declining in that time. The total award value of all students who’ve joined under the universal eligibility category (even before taking into account the offsetting savings from them leaving public school) is approximately $420 million as of June 2024. In comparison, the state legislature added over $600 million in discretionary funding for public schools during the first year of the universal ESA expansion alone (in addition to hundreds of millions more for mandatory inflation increases, etc.), even as public district school enrollment was flat.”
It is not surprising that Arizona’s ESA program is producing fiscal savings, as that is what the empirical evidence on education choice programs like Empowerment Scholarship Accounts has shown throughout the country for years. According to EdChoice, there have been 75 empirical studies on the fiscal effects of school choice programs since 2006, and 69 of them found a positive fiscal benefit from choice programs, with only five finding any negative effect.
The Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which was enacted in 2011 and became the first universal ESA program in the country upon its expansion in 2022, already provides more than 76,000 Arizona children with access to the school the best fits their unique education needs and circumstances and will likely grow exponentially in the near future. Arizona lawmakers should do all they can to protect this program from special interests and opponents seeking to dismantle it.
The following documents provide more information about the Empowerment Scholarship Account program and education choice.
The Anti-ESA Double Standard: How Arizona Taxpayers Spend Billions More on High-Income Households Through Public Schooling
https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/policy-report/the-anti-esa-double-standard/
This report from the Goldwater Institute finds Arizona taxpayers spend 10 to 20 times as much on “high income” families through the public school system as on the universal ESA program, and families pursuing private and homeschool education options in Arizona through the ESA or other means come in large numbers from all income ranges.
Universal Opportunity: How Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) Defied Critics and Unleashed Affordable Private Education for All, Part I
https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/policy-report/universal-opportunity/
This Goldwater Institute report offers the first direct, substantive analysis of the impact of universal ESA eligibility on the affordability of private education.
The 123s of School Choice (2024 Edition)
https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-123s-of-School-Choice.pdf
This report from EdChoice is an in-depth review of the available research on private school choice programs in America. Areas of study include: private school choice program participant test scores, program participant attainment, parent satisfaction, public school students’ test scores, civic values and practices, racial/ethnic integration and fiscal effects.
The Public Benefit of Private Schooling: Test Scores Rise When There Is More of It
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa830.pdf
This Policy Analysis from the Cato Institute examines the effect increased access to private schooling has had on international student test scores in 52 countries. The Cato researchers found that a 1 percentage point increase in the share of private school enrollment would lead to moderate increases in students’ math, reading, and science achievement.
The Effects of School Choice on Mental Health
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3272550
This study from Corey DeAngelis at the Cato Institute and Angela K. Dills of Western Carolina University empirically examines the relationship between school choice and mental health. It finds that states adopting broad-based voucher programs and charter schools witness declines in adolescent suicides and suggests that private schooling reduces the number of times individuals are seen for mental health issues.
Heartland Impact can send an expert to your state to testify or brief your caucus; host an event in your state; or send you further information on a topic. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance! If you have any questions or comments, contact Cameron Sholty, at csholty@heartlandimpact.org or 312/377-4000.
