Arizona law allows school choice funds to be used for college

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(The Center Square) - Students in Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program can use their funds to pay for college, according to Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.

Arizona law allows participants in the taxpayer-funded, school choice program who don’t spend all their money in a given year to save it for college tuition, Horne told The Center Square this week.

“We want kids to go to college. The percentage of college-educated students in a state has something to do with the success of its economy," Horne said, noting he would like to see more students go to college.

Matt Beienburg, director of education policy at the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, said the ESA program is intended to ensure families can deploy their education funds at the level that best supports their needs.

Beienburg told The Center Square this week that students who don’t spend all their ESA money in one school year can have it roll over to future years.

The majority of families who use the ESA program are “in the lower grades,” he said. This year, the ESA program surpassed 100,000 participants.

The ESA program allows students to use their funds for K-12 education, community college, public universities in Arizona, private, accredited post-secondary institutions and out-of-state colleges, Beienburg said.

The ESA program provides an incentive for families to use their resources efficiently, the education policy director noted.  

In particular, he said, if families who are in the ESA program home-school their kids and are able to put aside funding each year to go towards college, that is “absolutely something” Arizona should be “glad to see that families are able to do” rather than “facing student debt payments.”

According to Beienburg, a double standard exists when people object to students using ESA funds to pay for college. The education policy director said there is no objection to families using Pell Grants to attend out-of-state institutions.

Pell Grants are taxpayer-funded, federal financial aid for undergraduate students that does not need to be repaid.

Beienburg said ESA program participants are across the “income spectrum” in Arizona.

Last month, the Arizona Education Association and Save Our Schools Arizona filed a ballot initiative, “Protect Education, Accountability Now!” The program seeks to provide greater oversight of the ESA program. One provision of the initiative would prevent the rollover of ESA funds into subsequent years.

This would affect ESA participants' ability to save for college.

A low-income family trying to save for college would have its funds taken away if Arizonans pass the ballot measure, according to Beienburg.

“That’s a terrible public policy decision,” he said.

The ballot initiative would also impose a $150,000 income cap, potentially removing approximately 15% of ESA participants.