Get ready for an unshocking shocker. Parents who are taking advantage of the “Vouchers on Steroids” Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) are stashing away lots of money. They’re not using it right now; they’re saving it for some educational purpose to be named later.
Anyone who’s surprised by this turn of events hasn’t been paying attention. The generic name for the program is “Education Savings Accounts.” Saving up ESA money isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.
The Capitol Times has the story. Parents who are using the ESAs have accumulated $2.5 million in unspent money over the past three years, meaning one dollar out of every five the state has given to parents to be used for their children’s educations has yet to be spent. The Dept. of Ed. disputes the numbers — not because the Cap Times got it wrong, but because the Dept. of Ed. gave out bad numbers. However, the corrected numbers haven’t been released, so it’s reasonable to assume it’s still a big number.
Let’s look at why all that money, however much it amounts to, is going unspent. One reason is, some parents get a very large chunk of change every year. The amount is 90% of what the state would give to a public school (district or charter) to educate the child. For most kids, that’s a little more than $5,000 a year. But children with special needs have considerably more allotted for their educations, as much as $20,000 a year. In the original ESA legislation, most of the children who qualified were children with special needs, meaning lots of kids had far more than $5,000 deposited in their accounts each year. Parents could choose a private school charging less than they were given and have money left over.
Or parents could choose not to send their children to school at all, which is the second reason they might end up with a surplus at the end of the year. The ESA law says parents can spend the money on private school tuition, but they don’t have to. Instead, they can spend it on educational materials, online courses, tutors and testing. So if they decide to home school their kids, they’ve got between $5,000 and $20,000 a year to spend on, whatever — though it has to be an educational “whatever.” Anything they don’t spend rolls over to the next year.
That’s right. Arizona is now giving parents a monetary incentive to home school their children — actually, a couple of incentives. By keeping their children out of school, parents can save up a whole bunch of money for some later educational use during their children’s K-12 years. Or, and this is the biggie, they can use what they don’t spend on K-12 education for college tuition and supplies. That last option gives parents a mighty big incentive to scrimp on their children’s education. Every penny they don’t spend is a dollar saved to pay for college tuition.
(Question: What happens if parents use the ESA program for a few years and accumulate a surplus, then decide to send their kids to public schools the next year. Can they keep that surplus for later use? Logic says they should forfeit anything left in the account if they leave the program, but I’m not sure if that’s how it works. If anyone knows the answer, let me know.)
As I write this, the state senate has approved an expansion of the number of children who qualify for ESAs. The Republicans’ stated goal is to have a universal voucher program. If this bill passes and gets Brewer’s signature, it puts them about half way there.
This article appears in Apr 17-23, 2014.
Another strike against public education by our Tea Bag dominated Right Wing puppet legislature. Time to throw the bums out.
Does the author know any parents that home-school? I know several and they don’t “skimp” on the education. The author automatically assumes that the parents will cut corners with their child’s education. Any evidence to back up your theory?
First, a correction: according to Rep. Heather Carter, “…that 90 percent figure has been computed on what the state pays to send children to charter schools. And state aid to charter schools is higher than traditional public schools because they do not have access to things like local tax revenues. Legislative budget staffers have put the voucher aid at $5,400 a year, more than what the state now pays in aid to regular public schools.”
Everything about this program smells bad. Taking the money from already underfunded public education, giving it to private schools, parochial schools, home-schooling. No academic testing required. No oversight. AND, parents can use the money to send their kids to college? Am I missing something here? Do public school kids get (free) money to go to college? I had not heard of that!
Wake up sleeping taxpayers! You and our public education system are being robbed by a bunch of thieves in the AZ legislature! Where’s the outrage? It is time to vote these people out of office! If you are an independent, VOTE! Especially vote in the Republican primary for a sitting moderate Republican who has tried to stop these bills. But better still, vote for Democrats in November!
just to clarify, the funds are not randomly available to just anyone. Here are the criteria for even receiving the funds:
Q: Who can apply for an Education Savings Account?
A: Study eligibility for the program is defined as follows:
*Students with special needs (children with an IEP or 504 plan);
*Students attending Arizona public schools or school districts that received a “D” on their state accountability report card;
*Students whose parents are active duty members of the U.S. military;
*Students who have been adopted from the state’s foster care system or who are placed with a family and have a case plan of adoption.
*Incoming kindergarten students who meet any of these criteria.
All students applying to the program for the first time must have attended a public school for at least 100 days in the prior school year.
here is a link to more info:http://goldwaterinstitute.org/article/education-savings-accounts-questions-and-answers
Robert, about your comment on home schooling. I didn’t say anything negative about people who homeschool, nor did I say they scrimp on their children. In fact, traditionally, Arizona homeschoolers get no compensation from the state. The ESAs could potentially change that. So, two points. First, does it take $5,000-plus per year to homeschool a child? Probably not, so ESA homeschoolers are likely to have money to rollover at the end of the year. Second, the ESA creates an incentive for people to homeschool their children who may not have the passion it takes to do it well. That can mean people who lack the time, inclination and education to homeschool their children will try it out, with poor to disastrous results.
If you want more clarification of my stand on the issue, you can read a post I wrote in January: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archi…
“does it take $5,000-plus per year to homeschool a child? Probably not…”
Really? One parent has to stay home and likely would make a lot more than $5000 per year. So the cost is much greater than $5000 in reality. Nobody is going to choose to homeschool for $5000 per year.
In most cases, the parent does not quit a job to homeschool. The parent was already not working. That does make $5000 per kid look pretty lucrative.
Let’s be clear about that $5,000, or whatever the state puts in a “savings account” for each student. It’s not a payment to the parents. If the system is working properly, the parents can only use the funds for approved educational expenses. The two ways parents benefit from a rollover of money not spent is (1) they can spend more in the next years, and (2) any money left when the child attends college can be used for tuition and books.
I think it would cost more than $5,000 per year to homeschool a child, especially as that includes school materials and food for the child. Money for education is money for education, be it homeschooled or public schools. I do not at all resent kids with disabilities getting $20,000 a year for education outside of the public school system.
A real problem with TUSD schools is that the schools live, and often times teach, in a very political environment. I remember going to TUSD and schools couldn’t afford books, or they’d complain about their pay, and ask students to tell their parents how bad things are. Now we’ve had taxpayers paying for MAS classes which stir-up feelings of resentment and hatred of others. This isn’t what public education should be. TUSD is a becoming a *bad* school district, it spends more money on administration than any other, plain and simple parents need to look at other options.
Recently, TUSD cancelled summer programs except for grades 3,5 and 8. They didn’t give parents time to look elsewhere as the whole H. T. Sanchez giving consulting gigs to his friends was in the news, and they don’t want parents looking outside of TUSD. Kinda would’ve looked bad if the whole $100,000 consulting gig Sanchez flushed down the drain to his friends came out and then TUSD cancels a good chunk of summer programs.
We’re look at a outside of TUSD summer school program for our kids as TUSD basically screwed us over this summer, and we’re looking at Catalina for middle school & high school.
>>That’s right. Arizona is now giving parents a monetary incentive to home school their children — actually, a couple of incentives.<< Homeschooling a kid is a big decision, both for the child and the parent, and it involves a huge time/energy commitment on the part of the parent, meaning that most folks who homeschool aren’t in it for some money down road for the college. These funds may make it easier for parents inclined to homeschool to do so anyway, not a big deal as these parents aren’t satisfied with TUSD anyway. TUSD schools can be impersonal and often times they lack the basics that kids need, and they’re basically a political football. Rather arbitrarily (or perhaps because somebody has kids going to TUSD summer program), only grades 3,5 and 8 can participate in TUSD’s summer program, it was reluctantly revealed to us by a bureaucrat at TUSD. If TUSD was a good school district, then it would make sense to, in essence, “force” parents to take their kids there, but this isn’t the case.