SE Arizona News

Empowerment scholarships for 1,139 students in the SE Arizona News readership area could be on the chopping block if Arizona’s Governor Katie Hobbs’ efforts to repeal the program are successful.

Hobbs’ executive budget from early January 2023 proposed reversing the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, an expansion which allowed any K-12 Arizona student to receive a scholarship worth up to $7,000 enabling them to attend a school outside the public school system.

There were 1,139 students within areas reported on by SE Arizona News who benefited from the ESA program in the third quarter of 2022, according to a SE Arizona News analysis of Arizona Department of Education data.

This is the most current and up-to-date quarterly information from the Department.

If the ESA program is rolled back, scholarships would only be available to students who met certain requirements, such as identifying as having a disability, attending a low-performing school, or residing on an American Indian reservation.

Steve Smith, Arizona state director of the American Federation for Children, told the Grand Canyon Times that rolling back ESAs could affect school choice and aid extended to low-income students.

“If the ESA program were to be eliminated, nearly 50,000 families would have their education of choice ripped away from them, including special needs and disadvantaged families,” Smith said in February 2023.

Gov. Hobbs claimed in a PBS interview that the school scholarship system will “bankrupt the state.”

“This scholarship system we are under now doesn’t provide real choice in educational opportunity for most families. It diverts resources from schools,” said Hobbs.

Data from the Common Sense Institute, however, indicated a scholarship costs Arizona taxpayers $7,000 compared to the $12,000 per student cost in the public school system.

District/Charter	Enrollment
Sierra Vista Unified District	369
San Carlos Unified District	158
Colorado City Unified District	114
Palominas Elementary School District 49	65
Fort Thomas Unified District	64
Payson Unified District	59
Fort Huachuca Accommodation District	51
Globe Unified District	41
Safford Unified District	34
Young Elementary District	24
Nogales Unified District	23
Tombstone Unified District	22
Benson Unified School District	18
Bisbee Unified District	16
Douglas Unified District	16
Thatcher Unified District	15
Pima Unified District	14
St David Unified District	14
Willcox Unified District	12
Cochise Community Development Corporation	10