Billions in Vouchers, Failing Grades: Arizona’s Education Funding Crisis

Reporter: Aidan Booker

PHOENIX – Arizona has put an excessive amount of money into their voucher-style education programs, with the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program projected to go over $1 billion, according to AZ Mirror. 

However, despite this massive investment, the state’s education rankings are still poor. Arizona is currently ranked 49th in student performance, 47th in school safety, and last in public school funding. 

With so many resources directed toward the ESA program, it’s possible that Arizona’s focus on vouchers could be doing more harm than good to the public school system. 

According to the Arizona Department of Education, the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program in Arizona is a state-funded program that allows eligible families to use public education funds for educational expenses, such as private school tuition, tutoring, and other academic pursuits. 

This funding typically amounts to 90% of the state's base funding that would’ve “been allocated to the school district or charter school for the qualified student.” 

As of October 2025, approximately 94,966 students are enrolled in the program. 

Tyler Kowch, the Communications Manager at Save Our Schools Arizona, a nonprofit organization advocating for public education in Arizona, claims that this program has been growing steadily since 2023. 

“So before universal expansion, the program costs roughly $5 million a year,” Kowch said. “In 2023, one year after universal expansion, the program had risen to $587 million with just under 62,000 participants.” 

Universal expansion is a term that essentially means the program is now available to everyone, not just select students. This means that students from anywhere in Arizona can apply for the program, ultimately overshadowing students in need. 

“We're spending more on public education now than we've ever spent before. You know, they'll increase their spending by a marginal amount every year, so it's technically the highest that Arizona has ever spent fully. You know, while we remain fully behind our peers in other states.”

Kowch also mentioned a voter-approved bill in 2020 titled Proposition 208, known as “Invest in Ed.” This bill would’ve raised taxes on high-income earners, specifically those making over about $250,000 a year, and around $500,000 for couples to increase funding for education. This bill received public praise and major voter support. 

“While it was being held up in the courts, the Arizona State Legislature passed a flat tax to kind of circumvent this initiative that was passed by voters,” Kowch said. 

This flat tax plan passed in 2021 by the Arizona Legislature reduced the state’s progressive income tax rates and created a single flat rate that would’ve limited the extra revenue Proposition 208 would have raised extremely. 

Unfortunately, Proposition 208 was denied by the Arizona Supreme Court in 2022 after being held up in the court, but the public support for increased education funding hasn’t wavered. 

On the educators’ side though, things haven’t been looking the brightest either. Geneva Fuentes, the Communications Director at Arizona Education Association, shared her perspective from speaking to teachers regularly. 

“Arizona has some of the lowest teacher salaries, we have schools that don't have working technology around their students, materials, and all of those problems exist in schools.” 

Because this program is open to everyone, she mentioned that some districts have even had to rely on local bonds and overrides to bring funding to their districts, showing the lengths some schools are going to support their students’ learning.