State Superintendent of Schools Tom Horne is coming under fire for gutting some of the state’s nationally renowned Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs), considered one of the best ESA programs in the country since all students — including those in private schools, microschools, Christian schools, and homeschoolers — are eligible. After his ESA handbook committee drafted guidelines, his administration changed their draft to limit certain expenditures for students — restricting them from the full access provided to traditional public school students.
State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) (pictured here) is trying to find a conservative to run against Horne in the primary in 2026 due to his dismantling of the popular program, which allows students to use funds for their K-12 education in nontraditional ways. Hoffman posted on X earlier this month, “Tom Horne is the greatest threat to school choice & the ESA program in Arizona. Tom Horne will lose to the Democrat in the 2026 general election. Arizona needs a strong, pro-school choice candidate for this very important office. I’m working on identifying that candidate now.”
In a follow-up post, Hoffman noted that Horne “voted NO on AZ’s signature School Tuition Organization (STO) Tax Credit Program in 1997” as a state legislator, which was the state’s original launch of school choice.“ He was responding to a post by Horne that claimed, “I brought school choice to Arizona in the 90s with my legislation.”
Jason Bedrick, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, added, “With respect, Supt. Horne. No you did not. Not only were you *not* the sponsor of HB 2704 in 1997, which created the School Tuition Organization Tax Credit Program, but you voted NO on final passage. You voted to block school choice.”
According to The Arizona Republic, Horne said he has been the “main advocate” for the program and ridiculed Hoffman. “I’ve fought hard for them,” he said. “I’m not a threat to ESAs, except in his perverted mind.”
Stacey Brown, a homeschooling mother who was kicked off the ESA handbook committee for exposing the changes, told The Arizona Sun Times that Arizona statutes say nothing about capping specific educational costs for ESA students, since the Arizona Legislature wanted to treat them the same as public school students.
With Brown removed from the committee, there is no longer a universal homeschooling parent on it (the remaining homeschooling parent has a special needs child who hasn’t faced caps or had to submit physician documentation until this proposed handbook because the agency already has this information on file).
The Arizona Legislature greatly expanded the ESA program in 2022 to cover all students, resulting in an increase from 12,000 students to almost 88,000 students now, which is almost 10 percent of Arizona’s K-12 students, Brown said.
Horne justified cutting the ESA program by pointing out a few items that parents put in for reimbursement that were denied, like a $5,000 Rolex watch. However, staffers refused to reimburse the parents for the items, so the program worked, Brown said. She noted that the ESA program has a fraud rate of .001 percent — what other state program has that low of a fraud rate?
She explained some of the limits that are being placed on the ESA students. They are capped at $2,000 for a laptop every two years. However, this is not enough for students interested in advanced graphics, which require computers that cost more like $4,000. Dehydrators aren’t reimbursable at all, but they are a necessary item for students studying chemistry.
There is a $3,000 cap on smartboards for a students’ entire education, but technology advances so fast it is unrealistic to believe a student can use the same one for up to 13 years, Brown said. Her daughter has special needs and needs one for her education.
Bedrick said Horne is capping reimbursements for “equipment used for physical education and home economics, musical instruments, laptops, smart boards, tools for vocational education, and more.”
Brown noted that homeschooled children perform so well that colleges don’t even require them to provide SAT or ACT scores. In fact, they offer them scholarships solely based on the fact they were homeschooled. One college offered her daughter a scholarship of $10,000 per year and another $5,000 per year.
Bedrick conducted a study for the Heritage Foundation which found that approval of the ESA program has steeply dropped under Horne, from 67 percent in 2023 under the previous administration to only 20 percent now.
Critics of ESAs contend that Arizona provides almost the least amount of funding for education in the country of the 50 states, but rarely point out that the state’s educational system is also ranked second in the nation by the Center for Education Reform. The Heritage Foundation’s Education Freedom Report Card ranked Arizona first in the nation for education choice and second behind Florida for educational freedom overall.
The Arizona Department of Education’s board must approve a new handbook by May 1, and the board is scheduled to meet again on April 28 at 9 a.m.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Arizona Superintendent of Schools Tom Horne” by Tom Horne.
