$7,200 per student: Arizona’s experiment in school choice

Some assert vouchers lack accountability

PHOENIX — Tom Horne’s whole job is public education. It’s in his title — superintendent of public instruction in Arizona — where he oversees the education of 1.1 million public school students.

But in an advertising campaign this summer, Horne makes a pitch to parents who are unhappy with public school: You can choose a private school, and Arizona will help pay for it.

Horne, a Republican who won election last year promising conservative values, is overseeing a pioneering effort in Arizona to offer private school subsidies, known as school vouchers, to all students.

In a plan approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature last year, Arizona became the first state to make every student, even those from wealthy families, eligible for a school voucher — on average worth about $7,200 per student annually.

The state deposits the money into education savings accounts for parents, which can be used to pay for private school or home schooling. If the student was enrolled in public school, the money follows the student. If the student was being privately educated, the voucher is a new cost to the state.

The program has been highly contentious — and hugely popular.

Since launching in September, it has grown from about 12,000 students to more than 59,000, outpacing projections. State education officials estimate enrollment could grow to 100,000 by next summer.

Fueled by the pandemic and an ascendant parents’ rights movement, other Republican states are moving in a similar direction. Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah approved universal programs this year, and Indiana and Ohio expanded existing programs to nearly all students.

For decades, vouchers were limited to certain students: lowincome children, students with disabilities, children zoned to low-performing schools. Major expansion efforts were often blocked, including by Arizona voters in 2018.

Now, advocates are finding new success with an encompassing message: parent choice for all.

Every family, they say, should be able to choose a school that is right for them, and every child should have access to high-quality education.

“Nobody can do a better job of choosing what’s best for the child than the parents,” Horne said in an interview at the Department of Education, where “EMPOWER PARENTS” signs punctuate the hallways.

But the expansion — projected to cost $376 million next school year, paid for by the state’s general fund — is already creating demand for private schools and sending more public money to middle and upperincome families and religious schools.

The vouchers come with little accountability.

Unlike public schools, including charters, private schools and home-school parents are generally not required to administer state tests or report student outcomes.

“I’ve never seen anything that I think would fundamentally alter the nature of public education before this,” said Doug Harris, an economist at Tulane University who studies school choice. “Even charter schools, it was different. You had accountability. The students were still taking the same tests, collecting data.”

“This,” he added, “is very different.”

Supporters see it another way: helping more families access the kind of education they want.

“This is a way to bring new families that never thought they could do private school,” said Daniel Scoggin, a co-founder of Great Hearts, a public charter school network known for its classical education and academic performance.