Arizona’s ESA Program Crosses the 100,000-Student Threshold

In the summer of 2022, Doug Ducey, the governor of Arizona at that time, signed a bill to expand the Arizona ESA program to make every student in the state eligible to participate. Beyond making Arizona’s ESA program the first ESA in the nation to achieve universal eligibility, the bill laid the groundwork for the program’s substantial growth.

As of January 20th, 2026, the Arizona ESA program has over 100,000 students enrolled in the program.

Arizona’s ESA becomes the 5^th program nationwide to have over 100,000 students enrolled, joining both of Florida’s Family Empowerment Scholarship programs, North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship voucher program, and Ohio’s Edchoice expansion program.

The success of Arizona’s ESA program did not come overnight. When the program was launched in 2011-12, only students with special needs were eligible to participate. A few years later, eligibility expanded to include students attending failing schools, students with parents in the military, students in foster care, as well as students living on Native American reservations.

The program was popular even before the expansion to universal eligibility in 2022, as participation in the program slowly increased in the years leading up to expansion. Over 10,000 students were participating in the program before 2022.

But, as shown in the graphic above, the growth of the program post-expansion has been nothing short of massive. This is what can happen when a program is fully funded and eligibility is offered to all students in the state. The demand is certainly there.

As an observer and researcher of these types of choice programs across the country, there are a few lessons to be learned from the success of Arizona’s ESA program.

Reporting and Transparency are Critical

I’ve written quite a bit about this topic in the last year. States that are serious about advancing educational freedom for families can’t shirk the responsibilities around the reporting of program data. Arizona does a bang-up job in this department, producing quarterly reports on the program. I’d encourage opponents and advocates alike to become familiar with these reports, as there is a ton of data included in there that can help create productive conversations around this program.

These reports allow sharp researchers, like my colleague Marty Lueken, to analyze how the switcher rate (students leaving a public school and enrolling in a choice program) is increasing year by year in Arizona, and how that generates savings for the state. Analyses like these are incredibly helpful in debunking the myth that choice programs only serve to benefit those already in private schools.

The AZ DOE has also shown willingness to share transaction-level data with researchers like Susan Pendergrass. With that data, she’s been able to produce very helpful reports detailing how parents are spending their ESA funds and what trends are emerging year over year. These reports (linked below) give us a much clearer picture of how this program is impacting K-12 education in Arizona.

There are certainly areas of improvement, as Susan points out in her report Beyond Tuition, with ClassWallet’s categorizations of certain transactions. There are also data points that are worth celebrating. Pendergrass’ Supply Side research shows how the marketplace has changed to meet the increased demand from the ESA expansion. The Arizona ESA program allows students to access a broader range of schools.

Fraud is Bad, Transparency is Good

When a program grows to this extent, and when dollars invested in the program pile up, there inevitably will be people looking to dissect the program for better or worse. In Arizona’s case, there is no shortage of doom and gloom commentary.

Last fall, the AZ DOE revealed that their audit showed just over $600,000 in ESA funds that were possibly fraud or misuse. That is obviously not ideal, and it is necessary to punish those who used the funds fraudulently. That said, context is key here. Jason Bedrick wrote a really great piece on how opponents weaponize this fraud and very helpfully laid out the context needed in these conversations. The highlights:

• The amount of fraud revealed last fall is less than one-tenth of 1% of total ESA spending
• 400 accounts (.4% of total ESA accounts) were flagged, and some were referred to the Attorney General for possible prosecution

Champions of Choice are Invaluable

It is impossible to believe the Arizona ESA program would be where it is today without the hard work and dedication of people on the ground in Arizona. I won’t be able to properly give credit to everyone involved, but one organization I’ve worked with in the past always comes to mind. Love Your School Arizona, led by Jenny Clark and her team, is an awesome resource for families in the state who are interested in learning more about what options exist for their child’s schooling. I highly recommend checking out the work they are doing.

The Ultimate Goal

We conduct a lot of polling and survey work at EdChoice. One question that we’ve asked since day 1 gauges parents’ schooling preferences.

Results are pretty steady year by year. In an unencumbered world:

• Roughly 40% of parents would choose a public school for their child (inside or outside their residential district)
• Roughly 33% of parents would choose a private school
• Roughly 10% would choose to homeschool
• Roughly 10% would choose a charter school

As you can see from the graph above, the actual enrollment patterns across the country are not at all representative of what parents prefer. However, in some states like Arizona, the enrollment patterns are inching closer to reflecting the preferences of parents. This data can be found here, for those interested.

One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, these two bars will match one another. When that day comes, Arizona’s ESA program, as well as their other tax-credit scholarship programs, will have played a huge part in making that so.

This was originally published to our Substack.