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Arizona Just Showed Us What No Oversight Looks Like
Arizona’s auditor general reviewed 65 transactions in the state’s billion-dollar Empowerment Scholarship Account program and found failures in 25 of them — a 40 percent error rate. Parents bought generators, amusement park tickets, airline flights, and hotel stays with taxpayer education dollars. Between December 2024 and January 2026, the state automatically approved 2.3 million transactions worth $654 million with almost no human review.
Arizona’s auditor general described the review process as using no “comprehensive risk-assessment methodology.” The staff changed their own audit criteria repeatedly, and no one kept track.
Arizona is not an outlier. It is the model. Eighteen states now run universal or near-universal voucher programs, and most have built the same gap between public money and public accountability.
The Two-Track System
If your child has an IEP, attends a Title I school, or depends on nondiscrimination protections, those safeguards vanish the day you accept a voucher.
Public schools answer to the state. Private schools taking voucher money mostly answer to themselves. Here is what that looks like in practice.
| Requirement | Public Schools | Voucher-Funded Private Schools |
|---|---|---|
| Standardized state testing | Required by federal law | Few states require it; Tennessee just dropped the requirement |
| Accept all students | Yes, including students with disabilities | Can reject students based on disability, religion, or LGBTQ+ status |
| Disability accommodations (IDEA/IEP) | Full IDEA protections apply | IDEA does not follow the student to private school; religious schools are ADA-exempt |
| Financial audits | Annual, public | Rare and inconsistent; most states lack audit mandates |
| Teacher credentialing | State-licensed teachers required | No license required in most voucher states |
| Nondiscrimination protections | Title VI, Title IX, ADA | Religious exemptions override most protections |
| Academic outcome reporting | Publicly reported | Rarely funded or required |
The Fraud and Waste Trail
Florida lost track of 30,000 students and made between $60 million and $110 million in excess voucher payments. Arizona’s auditors described the ESA review process as “haphazard, continually changing and lacking concrete instructions.” Tennessee removed its own testing requirement rather than hold voucher schools to the same standard as public ones.
A few states are moving in the other direction. Virginia proposed a framework requiring state assessments, financial audits, and nondiscrimination rules for any private school taking public money. Utah now requires pre-approval of expenses and solvency verification. But these are exceptions, not the pattern.
Who Gets Left Out
Students with disabilities face the sharpest consequences. When a family uses a voucher to leave public school, IDEA protections do not follow the child. Private schools have no obligation to follow an existing IEP. Religious schools are fully exempt from the ADA and can legally refuse students with disabilities while still collecting voucher funds.
LGBTQ+ students face similar exclusion. Religious schools can discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity under Title IX religious exemptions, and no voucher program in any state prohibits that practice.
What You Can Do
- Tell your state legislators to require equal accountability. If a school takes public money, it should meet public standards — testing, audits, nondiscrimination, disability services. Use Resist Bot to send the letter.
- Ask your school board how vouchers are affecting local budgets. Iowa’s Des Moines Public Schools lost $47 million to voucher transfers. Your district may be facing similar cuts.
- Share this brief with parents who are considering vouchers. Many families do not know they are giving up disability protections, civil rights safeguards, and academic accountability when they leave the public system.
If you are in a state with a voucher program, see your state’s education fight and check your state page for local context. This fight is part of a broader attack on public education playing out at every level of government.