PHOENIX — On Monday, Arizona State Superintendent Tom Horne announced changes to the universal Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, or ESA, among other proposals to the Arizona State Board of Education.
Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program
For months, Superintendent Horne said the Department of Education has been lagging behind with reimbursements for families in the universal ESA program.
Horne said his ESA team is overwhelmed with the amount of reimbursements due to several changes. One big one over the summer, the Arizona Attorney General required ESA holders to submit curriculum for supplementary materials that could include books and pencils.
To reduce the backlog, Horne told the board his team presented an idea to the task force that’s looking at any ESA handbook changes and ultimately implemented the measure.
“For all orders that are $2,000 or less, we’ll simply pay them and audit them later,” Horne said.
That means any payment under that amount will be approved, but Horne’s team will go back and check for any fraudulent or improper purchases.
“If the audit shows that they were improper, the money can be clawed back. If it’s fraudulent, there could be more severe consequences to that,” Horne said.
In the meeting, board members also rejected several appeals made by ESA families whose purchases were ultimately denied by the Department of Education. This included a cello priced at $16,000, according to ESA Director John Ward. Other items that were rejected in appeals included expensive radio equipment and dune buggies.
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The meeting was also interrupted in the beginning by the group Fight for a Better Arizona, a coalition of current and former educators as well as community members critical of the universal ESA program as two out-of-state people were recently indicted of defrauding the ESA system of more than $100,000.
“There’s no limit to it. This is our tax dollars and we need some accountability, some transparency and that’s not happening, so we need some leadership,” said Randy Parraz, the co-founder of the coalition.
The group wants Governor Katie Hobbs to veto a budget that does not include guardrails to the ESA program.
State assessment exams
The Arizona Department of Education also went to the board, wanting to make changes to the state’s standardized test called Arizona’s Academic Standards Assessment or AASA.
ABC15 has reported on the scores. Of the students tested, less than half are proficient in either English Language Arts and/or math.
“As most of you know, we have not moved the needle in two, three years. That’s very disheartening to teachers as they work hard every day and principals who try to support their teachers,” said Margaret Dugan, the deputy superintendent of the Arizona Department of Education.
The department currently has a group that’s looking into which standards should be prioritized within the current required standards and then eventually communicated to educators to help with lesson planning and curriculum.
“We're reviewing standards to see what should have a higher focus than maybe other standards on the AASA knowing all standards have to be taught on the exam,” said Linda Burrows, the deputy associate superintendent of academic standards with the Department of Education.
The goal is to help boost academic scores. The Department of Education said it also wants more detailed results from its exam vendor to pass onto schools and administrators to help figure out what’s needed for students to raise scores.
Educator misconduct
The board also discussed disciplinary action for several educators with different alleged misconduct.
This includes a case ABC15 has reported on. A former Glendale high school teacher, Estevan Carreon, is accused of recording students changing earlier this year.
On Monday, the board approved to accept the voluntary surrender of his teaching license. The Arizona State Board of Education told ABC15 that when educators voluntarily surrender their license, a history of discipline is flagged on their record that other states can look at as well. An educator with a history of discipline cannot be hired by another school in Arizona unless their certificate is reinstated.
Carreon is currently awaiting trial.
