WASHINGTON — Supporters of dueling ballot measures to either drastically scale back Arizona’s ballooning school voucher program or tweak it are intensifying efforts ahead of a July 3 petition deadline.
So are the defenders of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which cost state taxpayers more than $1 billion this year.
The ESA program has exploded to more than 100,000 students in the most recent school year. There were just 12,000 in 2022, when former Gov. Doug Ducey signed the law, expanding access to nearly every K-12 student and creating the nation’s first universal voucher program. Parents can get $7,000 per student to use for private and charter school tuition and homeschooling.
