PHOENIX (AP) - Dozens of Arizona families in a taxpayer-funded scholarship program have account balances of $50,000 or more, with nine families accumulating more than $100,000 over multiple years, public records show.
About 7,000 students are enrolled in the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which provides a state-funded voucher to pay for private education or another alternative to public school.
The program’s website says it provides assistance to students with a disability; students of parents who are legally blind, deaf or hard of hearing; students living on a Native American reservation and others.
Education officials said about $110 million was appropriated for the program this year, and the total balance from all accounts exceeds $33 million, the Arizona Capitol Times reported Thursday.
Parents are required to spend at least some of the money within their contract year, and unused funds roll over quarterly, the state Department of Education said. The money also can be used for college or vocational school, and any money left over after the account is retired goes back into the general fund, officials said.
Amy Chan, whose son is in the program, questioned what other parents are spending the money on.
“How are they educating their kids without using that money?” Chan said. “In our case, we’re using almost the entire amount of ESA funds that we’re getting.”
High balances show “some parents are using their ESA account as a personal slush fund,” said Dawn Penich-Thacker, a spokeswoman from Save Our Schools, an advocacy group that has been critical of the voucher program.
“If you’re amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars, then clearly you’re not using the ESA to educate your child in the way the average taxpayer would expect,” she said.
Penich-Thacker proposed an annual check-in to make sure parents aren’t hoarding funds for years.
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