Arizona's Universal ESA Vouchers Are Welfare For the Wealthy
Arizona’s universal ESA voucher program, once touted as a solution for educational inequity, has instead become a coupon for the affluent, diverting hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars away from the public schools on which low-income families continue to rely.
In 2022, after nearly a decade of relentless lobbying, Arizona lawmakers passed the country’s first universal ESA voucher expansion. Privatizers like the Goldwater Institute pushing the program claimed that the program would benefit lower-income families who did not have access to private schools. However, this promise has failed dramatically; two years after expansion, the vast majority of voucher recipients live in the wealthiest zip codes in the state. Arizona’s experiment with universal vouchers has primarily benefited the rich, exacerbating the very educational disparities proponents argued ESA vouchers would close.
Vouchers Serve the Rich
While exact data on who uses ESA vouchers is challenging to obtain due to the program’s total lack of transparency, the scant data available to taxpayers paints a clear picture: the vast majority of vouchers go to the wealthiest zip codes in Arizona.
The use rates of ESA vouchers by high- and low-income families have been estimated in multiple ways, but regardless of method, the results are clear. The Brookings Institution examined voucher participation based on the share of residents in a zip code benefiting from welfare programs. They found a clear, negative correlation: the zip codes with the lowest poverty rates had the highest voucher usage, and the zip codes with the highest poverty rates had the lowest voucher usage.
ProPublica tested the basic correlation between median household income and voucher usage rate and found a clear correlation; the higher the household income, the higher the voucher usage rate within a zip code.
A similar analysis from CNN, which honed in on ESA voucher usage in the wealthy suburbs of Maricopa County found a direct and clear correlation between median household income and voucher participation rates.
An in-depth breakdown from ABC15 found that a whopping 52% of Arizona voucher recipients are from zip codes in the top quarter of household incomes. Overall, 75% of vouchers go to families in zip codes with median incomes above Arizona’s average. Only 5% of voucher recipients are from the zip codes in the lowest quartile of median incomes — meaning that the wealthiest zip codes in the state have more than 10 times as many voucher users than predominantly low-income zip codes.
While exact data on who uses ESA vouchers is challenging to obtain due to the program’s total lack of transparency, the scant data available to taxpayers paints a clear picture: the vast majority of vouchers go to the wealthiest zip codes in Arizona.
The use rates of ESA vouchers by high- and low-income families have been estimated in multiple ways, but regardless of method, the results are clear. The Brookings Institution examined voucher participation based on the share of residents in a zip code benefiting from welfare programs. They found a clear, negative correlation: the zip codes with the lowest poverty rates had the highest voucher usage, and the zip codes with the highest poverty rates had the lowest voucher usage.
ProPublica tested the basic correlation between median household income and voucher usage rate and found a clear correlation; the higher the household income, the higher the voucher usage rate within a zip code.
A similar analysis from CNN, which honed in on ESA voucher usage in the wealthy suburbs of Maricopa County found a direct and clear correlation between median household income and voucher participation rates.
An in-depth breakdown from ABC15 found that a whopping 52% of Arizona voucher recipients are from zip codes in the top quarter of household incomes. Overall, 75% of vouchers go to families in zip codes with median incomes above Arizona’s average. Only 5% of voucher recipients are from the zip codes in the lowest quartile of median incomes — meaning that the wealthiest zip codes in the state have more than 10 times as many voucher users than predominantly low-income zip codes.
ESA voucher funds are disproportionately concentrated in wealthy communities.
Barriers for Low-Income Families
It is no coincidence that high-income families are the primary benefactors of the voucher program, since the vast majority of voucher recipients were already enrolled in (and able to afford) private school. What’s more, Arizona’s voucher program was never designed to work for low-income families. The system has multiple barriers that make usage by low-income families all but impossible (read this excellent article from ProPublica, “In a State With School Vouchers for All, Low-Income Families Aren’t Choosing to Use Them.”
Vouchers Don’t Cover the Full Cost of Private Schools. According to EducationData.org, the average cost of tuition at an Arizona private school is over $10,000. For secondary schools, this cost rises to over $14,000. Private schools like Phoenix Country Day charge over $30,000 a year for tuition. The vast majority of voucher awards, however, are below $8000 — meaning that for a family to attend private school, they must also make up the difference. This is easily manageable for wealthier families, but this “voucher gap” effectively excludes working-class families from accessing higher-priced private schools.
“Just because you gave me a 50%-off coupon at Saks Fifth Avenue doesn’t mean I can afford to shop at Saks Fifth Avenue”
According to the Hechinger Report, private schools in Arizona are raising tuition following universal expansion, pricing many voucher recipients out. Of the 55 schools they analyzed, more than half raised tuition by at least 10%, with some raising it by more than 20%.
Additional expenses associated with private schools, such as uniforms, meals, and fundraising contributions, further strain lower-income families. On the other hand, public schools provide transportation and free or subsidized meals to lower-income students and offer other wraparound services, such as food pantries, clothing, health services, and other family support.
Private Schools are Located in Predominantly Wealthy Areas. ProPublica analyzed the location of over 200 private schools in Maricopa County — they found that the schools are “disproportionately located to the north and east of downtown — in Midtown, Arcadia, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and the suburbs” rather than the historically segregated areas of the metro to the south and west. Further, only six of the private schools they analyzed are from Census tracts with a median income below $45,000. Unlike public schools, which offer transportation to families living within their boundaries, private schools are not obligated to provide transportation services and rarely do. One mother interviewed for the story noted that there was only one private school within a three-mile radius of her house.
Voucher-Funded Schools Lack Transparency. Unlike Arizona public schools, which publish a wide range of financial, academic, and safety-related data, Arizona private schools are not required to provide the public with any information. Therefore, parents who want to enroll their students in a private school lack crucial data on student performance, financial management, and other aspects when assessing schools. While parents in wealthier households may be able to dedicate the time to tour multiple schools across town and perform in-depth research to determine the best fit for their child, working-class families often do not have that luxury. Further, if the school does not turn out to be a good fit — or it suddenly closes in the middle of the school year — low-income families are left in the lurch.
According to the Hechinger Report, private schools in Arizona are raising tuition following universal expansion, pricing many voucher recipients out. Of the 55 schools they analyzed, more than half raised tuition by at least 10%, with some raising it by more than 20%.
Additional expenses associated with private schools, such as uniforms, meals, and fundraising contributions, further strain lower-income families. On the other hand, public schools provide transportation and free or subsidized meals to lower-income students and offer other wraparound services, such as food pantries, clothing, health services, and other family support.
Private Schools are Located in Predominantly Wealthy Areas. ProPublica analyzed the location of over 200 private schools in Maricopa County — they found that the schools are “disproportionately located to the north and east of downtown — in Midtown, Arcadia, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and the suburbs” rather than the historically segregated areas of the metro to the south and west. Further, only six of the private schools they analyzed are from Census tracts with a median income below $45,000. Unlike public schools, which offer transportation to families living within their boundaries, private schools are not obligated to provide transportation services and rarely do. One mother interviewed for the story noted that there was only one private school within a three-mile radius of her house.
Voucher-Funded Schools Lack Transparency. Unlike Arizona public schools, which publish a wide range of financial, academic, and safety-related data, Arizona private schools are not required to provide the public with any information. Therefore, parents who want to enroll their students in a private school lack crucial data on student performance, financial management, and other aspects when assessing schools. While parents in wealthier households may be able to dedicate the time to tour multiple schools across town and perform in-depth research to determine the best fit for their child, working-class families often do not have that luxury. Further, if the school does not turn out to be a good fit — or it suddenly closes in the middle of the school year — low-income families are left in the lurch.
Universal ESA Vouchers: A Broken Promise
Arizona’s universal ESA voucher program has become a subsidy for the wealthy, draining hundreds of millions of dollars from public schools that serve 92% of Arizona’s children. The program’s lack of transparency and significant financial and logistical barriers effectively exclude the very families it was purportedly designed to help. Arizona policymakers who genuinely want to benefit low-income students would be wise to rein in the ESA voucher program and fully fund public schools to ensure that all Arizona students have quality academic opportunities in their neighborhoods regardless of race, income, background, and zip code.