Analysis: Hobbs’ effort to repeal school choice program could doom scholarships for 4,923 students in SE Valley Times readership area

Empowerment scholarships for 4,923 students in the SE Valley Times readership area could be on the chopping block if Arizona’s Governor Katie Hobbs’ efforts to repeal the program are successful.

Hobbs’ executive budget from early January 2023 proposed reversing the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, an expansion which allowed any K-12 Arizona student to receive a scholarship worth up to $7,000 enabling them to attend a school outside the public school system.

There were 4,923 students within areas reported on by SE Valley Times who benefited from the ESA program in the third quarter of 2022, according to a SE Valley Times analysis of Arizona Department of Education data.

This is the most current and up-to-date quarterly information from the Department.

If the ESA program is rolled back, scholarships would only be available to students who met certain requirements, such as identifying as having a disability, attending a low-performing school, or residing on an American Indian reservation.

Steve Smith, Arizona state director of the American Federation for Children, told the Grand Canyon Times that rolling back ESAs could affect school choice and aid extended to low-income students.

“If the ESA program were to be eliminated, nearly 50,000 families would have their education of choice ripped away from them, including special needs and disadvantaged families,” Smith said in February 2023.

Gov. Hobbs claimed in a PBS interview that the school scholarship system will “bankrupt the state.”

“This scholarship system we are under now doesn’t provide real choice in educational opportunity for most families. It diverts resources from schools,” said Hobbs.

Data from the Common Sense Institute, however, indicated a scholarship costs Arizona taxpayers $7,000 compared to the $12,000 per student cost in the public school system.