Education | Ten Across
Back to school: Expansive arizona Program puts universal school choice under microscope
Photo by Taylor Flowe on Unsplash
Editor’s note: This article is part of a collaboration between APM Research Lab and the Ten Across initiative, housed at Arizona State University.
by EMILY SCHMIDT | Sept. 8, 2022
In early July, Arizona passed the nation’s most expansive school choice legislation to date, enabling the state’s 1.1 million students to be eligible for scholarship funds. Through the Empowerment Savings Account, any student may receive up to $7,000 in funding to support their educational needs regardless of school setting, with additional financial support for students with disabilities.
With very few limits or regulations, this legislation is the first of its kind. A student does not need to have been enrolled in public schooling the previous year, nor is there a family income limit or an enrollment cap.
School choice—a family’s right to decide where and how to educate their children—has become increasingly popular as more and more states expand their old school choice programs and add new programming. Historically, these programs have been fairly limited to private schools.
“The reality is that in the last 30 to 35 years, school choice has expanded significantly across the country. And most of those expansions have been public sector options,” said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week.
While there are various school choice programs, educational savings accounts (ESAs) and school voucher programs are expanding most quickly. These provide families with funding to use for educational-related expenses. ESAs have more flexibility than school vouchers, as voucher aid must be applied to private school tuition.
Twenty states have some form of ESA or voucher program, including six that have both kinds of programs. However, the eligibility, enrollment limit and funding vary drastically by state.
With notable growth in state- and tax-funded financial aid just in the last year, school choice has become increasingly political. Questions regarding its accountability and effectiveness have been studied for years, but Arizona’s new legislation, set to take effect Sept. 24, has produced additional scrutiny. There is already a mounting effort to repeal this law.
Dr. David Garcia, associate professor of educational leadership and innovation at Arizona State University, said that one small school choice policy can have a domino effect to pass continually more expansive policies.
“Now in Arizona, we've got basically a universal ESA program that's handing over a roughly $7,000 debit card to parents and saying here, go ahead and educate your child,” he said.
Programs like that in Arizona provide families a much greater freedom to choose where to educate their children—a primary argument in favor of school choice. Campanella said families can choose from a plethora of school options, though these programs primarily help lower-income and disadvantaged families.
In contrast, decreasing student enrollment in already poorly performing and underserved public schools is a concern for others.
Because of the pandemic, more education options became available through school choice as nearly all schools transitioned to online learning whether they were equipped to or not. According to the National Education Association public-school fall enrollment increased then stayed fairly stable from 2013 to 2020. In fall 2021, enrollment dropped by more than 1.3 million students.
Dr. Douglas Harris, department of economics chair at Tulane University and director of the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, said this decrease is insignificant compared to the roughly 50 million students enrolled in public schools nationally.
But for struggling schools, this decrease is more impactful.
In August, Florida consolidated multiple private and home school scholarship programs into the Family Empowerment Scholarship, which offers expanded eligibility to receive aid. Statewide, public-school districts will be sending $1 billion to private schools.
And even when students who were previously enrolled in private school or were homeschooled enroll in public school, the state would not return the money to districts until at least halfway through the school year.
Garcia said the original conceptualization for school choice was “a rising tide lifts all boats,” in the sense that allowing more flexibility will benefit all schools, even those struggling. Advocates expected to see a rise in academic achievement, but he said that hasn’t played out as thought.
While several studies have shown school choice programs generate benefits like higher test scores and fewer absences, Harris said statewide voucher programs in Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana and Florida have not fared well, especially on test scores. But recent and widespread data is not readily available to strongly prove the effects of school choice one way or the other.
Harris added that new programs like the one in Arizona have the potential for further comparison.
Between 2012 and 2020, student participation in Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts increased steadily, but most steeply in 2020. Then, it dropped off by more than 1,000 students by the school year ending in 2021. By fall 2021, this number jumped to 11,775 students, a 21% increase.
With the new universal ESA going into effect Sept. 24, application submissions have been on the rise. As of Aug. 29, the Arizona Department of Education received a total of 6,773 ESA applications since opening the universal expansion application on Aug. 16.
Of those submissions 6,494 applied under universal eligibility. Applications not under universal eligibility fall under a variety of other already established categories, such as “K-12 student with a disability,” where public school attendance is required.
The department also estimates that about three-fourths of the universal category applicants have never been enrolled in the Arizona public school system. This means taxpayer dollars will be subsidizing costs, including tuition, for students who already attend private schools, rather than supporting the remaining one-fourth who seem to be using the program as originally intended.
Garcia said this developing trend is already looking like a “direct hit to the general fund.”
“Whether you’re in charter schools or you’re in public schools, this means that...less money [will be] available to you to educate your child,” he said.
Garcia also pointed out that if universal ESA eligibility remains, the state will continue to see a segregation effect—not only along racial/ethnic and socioeconomic lines but also in common interests.
Despite the potential drawbacks that may come with this greater expansion, Campanella said Arizona’s program provides families with the opportunity to choose what they believe is best for their children.
He said that families, however, must understand what they’re signing up for before they receive funding. They can’t suddenly change their minds once they unenroll their children from public sector schooling. Campanella stressed that parents should know how they’ll spend the money.
“Don't do it speculatively without a plan because you might be in a worse situation if you don't have a place to go.”