Beth Lewis: Tom Horne is trying to deceive us with his false voucher numbers
Beth Lewis is the director of Save Our Schools Arizona. Writing for AZMirror, she cuts through the smoke and mirrors of a recent press release from the state superintendent of schools.
Tom Horne, our state’s Republican superintendent of public instruction, isn’t known for cozying up to the truth. But his latest attempt to spin private school voucher numbers marks a new low even for him.
Last week, Horne fired off a press release bragging that the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA), the formal name for the universal voucher program, couldn’t possibly be causing the state’s massive budget crisis because his department ended the year with a $4 million surplus.
Horne’s deceptive messaging ignores the reality that the Republicans who control the Arizona Legislature allocated nearly $650 million in the K-12 budget to ESA vouchers — money the state could have dedicated to the public schools Horne is supposed to support — and that is what is driving fully half of the state’s $1.3 billion budget deficit. In other words, Arizona is now spending hundreds of millions of dollars in new funds it doesn’t have for the universal ESA voucher program, primarily as a coupon for wealthier families who already chose (and paid for) private schooling before the state stepped in to subsidize that cost.
Republicans have repeatedly gouged ever larger holes in the state funding bucket and then ask where the water went and why they can’t water their lawn. The current deficit is the direct result of vouchers and a massive income tax cut for the rich passed by legislative Republicans that has strangled state revenue.
Absent these, Arizona would currently have hundreds of millions of extra dollars in its coffers to fund teacher pay raises and to lift Arizona’s public schools out of 49th place in state education funding.
But Arizona doesn’t have any additional funds to spend, and instead faces massive shortfalls. In fact, this year the legislature was forced to slash funding for roads, water, community colleges, universities, and K-12 schools to balance the budget.
That Horne brags about a $4 million surplus is utterly laughable. It’s like saying your irresponsible uncle (the legislature) gave you $600 (that he didn’t have) and you only spent $596, so now there’s a $4 surplus and you’re “saving money.”
Horne’s false math is a shell game that attempts to distract from the ESA voucher program’s rampant fraud, waste and abuse. Horne would rather we not talk about the three dune buggies his department approved for voucher spending. He’d rather we look the other way from $1,800 Lego collectible sets, more than $100,000 in non-educational spending, “ghost students” in fraud cases and the $10 million in taxpayer funds he’s using to advertise the irresponsible program.
Further, Horne’s statement makes clear a staggering new statistic: 1 in every 10 dollars our state spends on K-12 education is now going to the off-the-rails, unaccountable voucher program. While ESA vouchers are only used by 6.3% of Arizona’s student population, vouchers are receiving 11.3% of state funding — nearly double the per-student funding given to public schools.
What’s worse, Horne’s attempted spin rings hollow considering the massive funding cuts to Arizona schools his department has mismanaged. Over the summer, schools were abruptly informed that they would face a $28M cut to their Title-1 funding, a federal fund specifically for schools with the highest poverty rates. Some schools saw devastating cuts of up to 20%. Hampered by ADE’s inadequate communication, schools were forced to make difficult decisions about whether to cut teacher positions or student programs.
If Horne was truly doing his job to support Arizona’s schools, he would be working tirelessly to find solutions to the funding cuts his department’s inaction has created. Instead, he is doubling down on the irresponsible private school voucher program that is draining Arizona’s budget of the very funding that should be preparing our public school students to thrive.
To position Arizona for the future, we must elect a pro-public education legislature that will rein in ESA vouchers, put an end to the fraud and abuse in the program, and shift priorities where they belong: to ensuring our schools are properly funded, our students have access to excellent neighborhood public schools, and our educators are finally paid what they deserve.