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Diamonds, Lingerie, Appliances– Voucher Fraud, Oh My
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👀 You’ve likely heard all about the most recent ESA voucher scandal uncovered by 12 News’ reporting team — because the whole country is talking about it. [[link removed]]
💍👙📱 Laundry List, Indeed: 12 News’ Craig Harris requested reports of all of the reimbursements being approved by Supt. Horne’s ADE, and the laundry list of fraud, waste, and abuse is shocking [[link removed]] .
The investigation found that private school parents using ESA vouchers for their kids “bought diamond rings and necklaces, Kenmore appliances, and even lingerie with education tax dollars… more than 200 Apple iPhones, more than 50 smart TVs, dozens of gift cards worth up to $500 — all since last November when the [ADE] began automatically approving all ESA [voucher] requests.” This move from Horne came even after he complained that parents were using taxpayer dollars to fund gift cards [[link removed]] .
Watch below to hear more about what was approved —
Including just under $2000 for “a person named ‘ME’”
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“Most Accountable,” Sure 🙄: While the ADE’s website says the ESA voucher program “may be the most accountable program in the state,” Beth Lewis of Save Our Schools Arizona said that’s laughable: "Tom Horne has instituted this policy, which is, you know, the exact opposite of any sort of financial stewardship or responsibility. We have no idea where the funds are going, and whether they’re being used to just improve people’s homes or pay for things that no other person in the state would ask people to pay for.”
💪 AG Mayes has a Plan: In response, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes plans to file a lawsuit to crack down on the misuse of funds: “I think that every Arizona taxpayer has every right to be demanding what in the hell is going on inside both the ESA program, but also the Department of Education.”.
None of this is a surprise: As Joe Dana reported, “Republican lawmakers can’t say they weren’t warned. [[link removed]] In 2022, state legislator Shawnna Bolick and her GOP colleagues pushed through the voucher expansion. Many Democrats and educators warned at the time that without accountability it would lead to unchecked spending.” Bolick and her Republican colleagues refused to add any guardrails at the time — and ever since. Now, three years later, AZ GOP Chair Gina Swoboda bucked her party by saying: “We need risk-limiting audits, we need to do something to make sure this is cut off… I will concur that there are people that are taking advantage of the system, and when you expand it rapidly… and don’t put guardrails in place - this is where we are now.” Click here [[link removed]] to watch Bolick and Senate President Warren Petersen refuse to answer Joe’s questions! 🍿
🤡 The Freedom Caucus Won’t Take It: In response to the GOP Chair Swoboda’s real talk about vouchers, Arizona’s most MAGA are calling for her ouster. [[link removed]] Swoboda is having none of it: Senator “Hoffman and [Representative] Harris are little more than low-rent grifters with sordid histories who want to destroy the Republican Party in Arizona,” she told Capitol Media Services on Thursday. “Their pathetic self-aggrandizing attacks on Republicans are so common and predictable that they ceased to be taken seriously long ago.”
🔥 Don’t miss the always on-point Laurie Roberts’ take [[link removed]] : “ Diamond rings and gaming laptops. Trips to Knott’s Berry Farm and Great Wolf Lodge …You know, those public funds doled out to parents to use as they see fit, in the name of ‘school choice?’ Turns out, some of them are choosing to use our money to buy dog food and diapers.
Broadway theater tickets and airline tickets. Maternity clothes and corsets and a $1,750 Herman Miller office chair … This, even as some public schools are literally falling apart [[link removed]] .
‘ Paging Bob Barker [[link removed]] ,’ Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes writes, in response to Harris’ story of ESA spending. ‘This list reads more like a Price is Right showcase showdown than legitimate educational expenses. The Legislature has failed year after year to put guardrails on this program and this is where it’s led us.’
… Above-ground pools and inflatable water slides and $1,000 Lego sets. Traeger grills and electric bikes and horse saddles. Curiously, the abuse doesn’t seem to bother Republican legislators or ESA lobbyists — people who presumably should want to ensure that money in their signature school choice program is properly spent. Yet since expanding the state’s universal voucher program to all children in 2022, the GOP-run Legislature has refused to enact any real controls on spending. Any evidence of abuse is met with a collective yawn or worse, a ridiculous claim that questioning such a use of our money is an ‘attack’ on ESA parents.”
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Tell Congress NO K-12 Cuts
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Use this one-click email tool to tell Arizona’s members of Congress to STOP K-12 education cuts TODAY!: bit.ly/ProtectFedEd [[link removed]]
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We hope you join us that night AND on a team as a fundraiser to support public education! We’ll have fun music and three exciting rounds of challenging and hilarious trivia, with prizes, of course. It's going to be our BEST trivia night yet!
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