Arizona School Finance - Public Finance and Budgeting - Financial Analysis - Personal opinions
Joined September 2024
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The universal ESA program was established through dishonest politics and has always been supported by lies and misrepresentations. HCR 2048 is more of the same.
Voters that value AZ public education should see through it and hold those that voted for it accountable in November.
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It’s disappointing to see elected officials continue to lie and misrepresent the cost of the universal ESA program to Arizonans.
Jun 5
Average cost per pupil spending:
District $14,000
ESA $7,000
Mr. Friedman right again.
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You’re not comparing apples to apples.
Your numbers include special education funding/costs for districts, but not for ESAs.
Your numbers also include parent’s out-of-pocket costs for districts (field trips, fees, school lunch), but not for ESAs (additional tuition payments).
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Charlie Martin retweeted
This is misleading, the proposed income cap does not apply to special education ESAs.
Special education and lower-income ESA students would both see annual funding increase if the savings from an income cap is reinvested into the state school funding formula.
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Charlie Martin retweeted
The claim that 25,000 students (34% of universal ESAs) will lose ESAs due to a $150,000 income cap is an admission that universal ESAs disproportionately benefit higher-income families, which pro-ESA groups have denied for years.
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Charlie Martin retweeted
In general, need-based public funding to help lower-income families access goods and services from private providers (food, housing) is much more common than providing a subsidy to all families regardless of income, which is what the universal ESA program does right now.
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Every additional dollar allocated to the universal ESA program ultimately represents tax increases on Arizonans and funds siphoned from other state programs.
GOP leaders need to acknowledge that their quote below from this article applies equally to the universal ESA program.
After 8 years a judge concluded that system of financing school construction, repairs & equipment doesn't meet constitutional requirements. But now GOP lawmakers seek to block his order saying courts have no business telling them what to do - or fund. tucson.com/news/local/educat…
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Applying an income cap to the Arizona universal ESA program (school vouchers) would benefit lower-income ESA students.
Reducing total state subsidies for private school would reduce tuition all-else-equal and make private school more accessible to lower-income ESA students.
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Responses to Treasurer Yee’s RFI for ESA Financial Management solutions are due one week after the Arizona primary.
The RFI asks potential vendors to describe options available to the state to limit ESA transactions, automate audits, and suspend/close/defund ESA accounts.
Today I issued a Request for Information (RFI) to modernize the state’s ESA financial platform. We are seeking innovative l financial platform solutions to improve support for more than 100,000 Arizona students and their families.
Press Release: aztreasury.gov/_files/ugd/8b…
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Charlie Martin retweeted
If by flexibility you mean the ability to charge tuition and hide data, no.
All publicly-funded options should serve students without charging additional tuition and should provide the same financial and academic performance data to parents and taxpayers.
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Charlie Martin retweeted
I agree, funding is a major challenge for public schools in AZ and high student/teacher ratios are connected to that.
The ESA program created over $300M in new state costs to subsidize existing private and home school students. That funding was badly needed elsewhere in AZ K-12.
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Charlie Martin retweeted
Competition on a level playing field - charter schools and district open enrollment - is absolutely worth supporting and protecting.
The universal ESA program is unfortunately the main threat to the successful school choice environment in AZ right now and needs to be fixed.
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Charlie Martin retweeted
Arizona district and charter schools provide tremendous school choice options. Districts and charters serve students without charging tuition and are transparent/accountable to parents and taxpayers.
Universal ESAs have hurt the very successful public school choice system in AZ.
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Arizona could have raised the salary of every district and charter school teacher in the state by over $4,000 each in 2023.
Instead, the state began spending over $300M per year to subsidize existing private and home school students through universal ESAs (school vouchers).
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Charlie Martin retweeted
Competition comes from charter schools and neighboring district schools, which serve many times more school choice students than ESAs.
ESAs subsidize students that were already in private and home school, wasting tax $ and eroding transparency and accountability to AZ taxpayers.
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Charlie Martin retweeted
Universal ESAs do not save taxpayers money, they cost over $300M per year. About 60% of universal ESA participants were already in private or home school and were new costs to the state.
Many more students participate in school choice by choosing district and charter schools.
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Great article overall, but the framing below is an incorrect pro-ESA talking point. Most ESA participants were never in public school and would have $0 state funding. More accurate to just say that the program provides state funding for private and home school.
@raystern
May 13
Arizona state auditors flagged major lapses in the handling of ESA funds — raising new questions about oversight and accountability. azcentral.com/story/news/loc…
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Charlie Martin retweeted
May 13
The overwhelming majority of those ESA kids were already in private school or home school when universal expansion began in 2022.
So, it's not like there's a mass exodus from district or charters.
Some ESA parents realized it's free money for luxury items or bank for college.
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Charlie Martin retweeted
To be fair. We have no way to measure academic performance of ESA participants so there is no way to make a comparison. Only one side of the equation is visible.
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