Investigation reveals $440 million being unused in ESA accounts

An exclusive investigation by the 12News I-Team (KPNX) has obtained public records that show more than $440 million is being unused in education voucher accounts for private school and homeschooling. Parents who stockpile those tax dollars can use them to pay for their children’s college expenses.

The I-Team obtained the documents through a public records request to the Arizona Department of Education after State Treasurer Kimberly Yee refused to release the information. Both agencies have oversight of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA). They are expected to cost about $1 billion for the upcoming school year.

Craig Harris, an Investigative Reporter at KPNX, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the new data discovered from this investigation.

When Harris originally found out the amount totaled $440 million in unused funds, he “started filing public records requests, and we ended up gaining this number, which I was stunned by from the Department of Education, and we just decided to start looking into where all the money was going,” Harris said.

The number was so unbelievable to Harris, he even checked with the department if the figure was correct.

“When I added it all up, I sent a note back to the Department of Education that said, ‘Is this accurate?'” Harris said. “And they said, ‘Yeah, it is.'”

The stockpiled accounts are not insignificant amounts of funds either. The report found more than 10,000 accounts with more than $10,000 saved, and close to 200 accounts having more than $100,000 sitting in them.

But all of that stockpiling is perfectly legal, according to Harris.

“It was put in the law three years ago when empowerment scholarships were expanded,” Harris said. “A lot of people may have not been paying attention, but it was put in the law.”