Hobbs cements her focus on school vouchers in 2024 legislative session
Arizona's school voucher program will continue to be a focus in this year’s legislative session.
Gov. Katie Hobbs said in her State of the State address on Monday that she wants to add guardrails to the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which has cost about $900 million this year.
The state is currently facing a $400 million deficit for the fiscal year, and is set to fall behind $450 million in the next term.
The main culprit is tax cuts signed by former Gov. Doug Ducey in 2021 combined with the higher than anticipated costs of the voucher program. While critics say the program is a drain on state funds, proponents say it expands school choices for parents.
Hobbs is set to release her budget proposal for the next fiscal year later this week.
Regarding education, the school voucher program that Hobbs wants to rein in lets parents use public money for private-school tuition and other education costs. It started in 2011 as a small program for disabled children but was expanded repeatedly over the next decade and became available to all students in 2022.
Originally estimated to cost $64 million for the current fiscal year, program costs have ballooned.
Sen. John Kavanagh, a Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Hobbs’ ideas for changing the voucher program won’t have any chance of getting through the Legislature.
“We are not going to regulate schools that parents choose and are working well,” Kavanagh said.
Hobbs vowed to bring accountability when she began her term a year ago as the first Democratic governor since 2009. Despite her criticism, the budget proposals negotiated by Hobbs last year didn’t include any caps on the expansion, leading Democratic lawmakers to express dissatisfaction with the lack of action.
She’s now proposing such changes as requiring private schools that receive voucher funding have minimum education requirements for teachers and that students attend public school for 100 days before becoming eligible for the vouchers. She reiterated a desire for accountability and transparency in the program.
Before the speech, Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman said Hobbs’ approach to vouchers would “destroy an empowering program that has helped hundreds of thousands of people, not just in their academic studies, but throughout their life.”
