Arizona’s ESA school voucher program exceeds 100,000 students

Enrollment for Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program has surpassed 100,000 students for the first time since its inception in 2011, according to the Arizona Department of Education.

The milestone comes as the cost of administering the ESA program reached $1 billion in a single fiscal year in late 2025.

ESAs allow children who are not enrolled in public schools to use up to 90% of the state funding that would have otherwise gone to their public school districts for private school tuition or homeschooling expenses.

The program was formerly reserved for specific groups, such as students with disabilities and students in foster care, but was expanded in 2022 to include all school-aged children in Arizona.

Tom Horne (R), Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, joined “Arizona Horizon” to tell us more.

“In the three years we’ve gone from 11,000 to 100,000,” Horne said, “…so it makes me feel like I must be doing something right.”

According to Horne, if a student leaves a public school to go to an ESA, the school loses the money, but they also lose the cost of educating the student.

“Big school with a lot of money, but not much per student is worse off than a small school with a lot less money but more per student educationally,” Horne said.

The funding is conducted on a per-pupil basis, which means the total cost per student in public schools, including all aspects, is roughly $13,000.

“…we have to educate all those people,” Horne said, “…if ESA closed down tomorrow…all those students who went to public school, it would create a crisis and the state budget would go up.”

Horne emphasized that it’s important that if a family feels that their child’s needs are not met in a local public school, they should have a choice that does meet the child’s needs.