Arizona State Senate
1700 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Press Release
PHOENIX – This past week, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced that the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) will automatically reimburse ESA voucher purchases for $2,000 or less. This announcement comes just a week after an Arizona grand jury indicted two out-of-state residents on suspicion of defrauding the voucher program by creating dozens of fake children to obtain taxpayers dollars through the voucher program. Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan (LD18) released the following statement:
“I want to personally congratulate former Governor Doug Ducey, legislative Republicans, and Superintendent Horne for creating—and now streamlining—the most disastrous scam against Arizona taxpayers that this state has ever seen.
Automatically reimbursing ESA voucher purchases for any amount highlights the grave lack of accountability and oversight endemic in this program. Horne has made it abundantly clear that it is far too large a responsibility for him and his office to ensure our tax dollars are protected from fraud. ADE was given an additional 10 million dollars to administer this program—and rather than increase staffing to address reimbursement backlogs, they chose to run commercials and advertise a program that was never intended to serve this many students.
Superintendent Horne and Arizona Republicans are not only reinforcing a system fit for fraud but a system that will lead to instability even for ESA families. With this change, ADE is attempting to delay the inevitable and ESA parents are going to be met with surprise letters years after purchases are made to retrieve funding for ineligible expenses. All parties should be alarmed and disgusted by this mishandling of taxpayer dollars.”
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