Op-Ed #6. A Voucher by Any Other Name: Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts

• In Event: The School Voucher Illusion: Exposing the Pretense of Equity

Abstract

In this op-ed, the authors illustrate how Arizona’s school choice movement shifted toward more and more expansive and unregulated school choice policies, ultimately arriving at Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). They examine the new policy from the perspective of parents and individual taxpayers and conclude that despite the efforts by advocates and state policy makers to advance ESAs, the general public remains skeptical of voucher-like programs.

Arizona has been a laboratory for school choice proponents to test market-based, individualistic school choice policies. In Arizona, parent “consumers” are encouraged to take full advantage of “their” portion of public funds through tax credits or ESAs to shop for a menu of educational services that serve their children’s best interest, with little to no state oversight on how parents spend public funds or state monitoring of student progress under these policies.

The implications are problematic for the long-standing goal of educational equity. Under a market-based education system, academic outcomes and equity are largely irrelevant, provided that parental choice has been realized. While critics correctly point out that the traditional public school system is not equitable, equity at least remains an aspiration. Markets, on the other hand, are not expected to be equitable.

In Arizona’s individualistic education landscape, parents are left to fend for themselves. If parents have disposable income, they can take advantage of tax credits or pay the activity fees for their students via public school tax credits. If parents possess the ability to navigate the state system, they can access an ESA. If not, then, by extension the onus is on parents. The state has abdicated its responsibility. The present trajectory in Arizona foretells of an educational environment that could drain the general fund and remove the state almost entirely from the administration and oversight of public education.

Yet, despite concerted efforts by school choice advocates to keep parents and taxpayers focused on education policies that advance their individual interests and to explicitly distinguish ESAs from vouchers, the Arizona story suggests that the public remains skeptical of voucher schemes, even if disguised by another name. The unconstrained march toward unregulated school choice policies in Arizona was disrupted by the electoral defeat of universal ESAs in 2018. The public balked when ESAs were explicitly associated with the word “vouchers” and the public was reminded about the negative implications of ESAs for public schools.

Authors

• David R. Garcia, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Makayla Steele, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author