Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is promoting an estimate of Empowerment Scholarship Account costs that shows they would save taxpayers money, but not everyone agrees that it would.
Horne released a statement Tuesday in support of an analysis done by Dr. Matthew Ladner, director of the Arizona Center for Student Opportunity, who said the popular program would likely not hit the $944 million mark estimated by the governor's office, which said would result in a $320 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year.
"I agree with Dr. Ladner that the cost of the ESA program will never be $943 million for reasons which I will explain. But even if it were, that would be only about one percent of the fiscal 2022 state budget of $80.5 billion," Horne said.
The ESA program allows parents to use a roughly $7,200 state credit that was meant for their student's public school education on private school costs or homeschooling material as long as the state approves the items.
"Taxpayers pay both state and local taxes. Combined they contribute about $13,000 per student for every student in public school," Horne added. "If a student leaves a public school for a private school, and obtains a payment from ESA of $7200, that is a savings of about $6000 per student to the taxpayers."
Horne also said that the state would still financially benefit if a student in private schools decides to use ESA funds, as they would presumably have to ditch their private school tax credit, which tops out at $1,459 for joint filers.
The program, signed into law by former Gov. Doug Ducey last year, was expected to cost far less but became so popular that its cost projections skyrocketed. According to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in January, they only projected that fiscal year 2024 would have 52,500 students in the program, which they estimated would have a price tag of $376 million.
