PHOENIX — Arizona’s top education official and the state’s attorney general are clashing over the empowerment scholarship accounts (ESA) program.
The showdown started after Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said she was “gravely concerned” about the way the way the Arizona Department of Education automatically approves ESA purchases under $2,000 with little oversight or review.
“This policy has led to ESA holders purchasing prohibited items such as diamond rings, lingerie, above-ground pools and big screen TVs with taxpayer funds,” Mayes said in a letter she sent to the Arizona Department of Education on Friday. “I cannot stand by while public monies are misspent.”
Kris Mayes accuses Tom Horne of enabling fraudulent ESA purchases
Mayes accused Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who leads the department, of enabling widespread misuse of taxpayer-funded ESA dollars by automatically approving expenditures under $2,000.
She said the state’s education department has been approving purchases under that threshold since 2024. That includes transactions made through Amazon and other vendors, even when receipts weren’t submitted. She said this policy bypasses checks meant to ensure funds are spent on legitimate educational materials.
“I understand that the Legislature has failed to provide the department with sufficient funds to adequately staff the ESA program,” Mayes said. “But the status quo is not acceptable.”
Here is the full text of her letter:
Tom Horne reacts to Kris Mayes alleging widespread ESA fraud
Horne, in turn, accused Mayes of misleading the public and attacking the ESA program.
“You misled the public by stating that improper ESA purchases had been approved, without any reference to the fact that under risk-based auditing dictated by the Legislature the money has been recovered or is in the process of being recovered,” Horne said in a Friday letter to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Essentially, he said that while the department approves purchases, it also performs retroactive audits in order to detect fraud.
For example, the state superintendent claimed Wednesday that the process was responsible for discovering an instance of fraud where a couple living in Colorado wrongfully received more than $110,000 from the ESA program and that more funds could soon be paid back to the state.
“We have collected or are in the process of collecting more than $600,000 that was paid out for improper purchases,” Horne said.
He also took umbrage with her statements that taxpayer dollars given to ESAs are being used to fund items that aren’t related to education.
“It has been made clear to ESA users in multiple communications that payments of under $2,000 do not imply approval, which can be obtained only after the risk-based auditing dictated by the legislature,” Horne said.
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