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So… You’re Saying There’s Fraud in the Voucher Program???
This week, Arizona’s off-the-rails private school voucher program came under fire once again [[link removed]] — this time due to a scathing report from the Auditor General. Meme with text: AZ GOP: [[link removed]]
👀 “Weak controls, questionable spending, and internal failures”: According to the 12News Investigative team, “the report paints a troubling picture of a billion-dollar taxpayer-funded [voucher program] [[link removed]] plagued by weak controls, questionable spending, and internal management failures… The report found the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) lacked basic financial controls and standardized procedures to monitor spending.”
The AZ Republic published an extensive review, sharing that auditors found the state could not prove it reviewed or took action [[link removed]] in over half a million "high risk expenditure transactions" from July 2023 to October 2025, totaling nearly $100 million. The Auditor General report also shows the ADE failed to address potentially unlawful purchases until deadlines to recover the misspent money had passed.
Vouchers Ripe for Abuse: The new report paints the $1 billion-plus ESA voucher program as ripe for abuse due to neglected or otherwise weak reviews of purchases. One review found deficiencies in 14 out of 15 transactions. Another found the ADE failed to identify 25 samples of 63 transactions with problems, including "missing documentation, indicators of possible misuse, overpayments, and unallowable expenses."
🤯 ADE Accused of Misleading the AG’s Office: What’s worse, the Auditor General’s Office slammed the education agency in the report for "misleading" its investigators. Auditors disputed the ADE’s claim that it audits 2 million orders for education tuition and expenses, saying "we found in practice that the Program’s audit methodology did not constitute a comprehensive risk-based approach." The report details how auditors were told about robust processes to catch misspending, while a complete lack of documentation told a different story.
In another example, program officials "represented to us on multiple occasions that it was selecting 30% of orders for audit according to its undocumented policy and procedure. However, when we found contradictory evidence through our observations that demonstrated the Program’s percentage of transactions assigned for an audit was lower — 6.5% to 23.9% — the Program pivoted and reported it was in fact 'a goal' and not its undocumented policy and procedure."
In its response to the report, Supt. Horne’s office said it “does not concur” with the recommendation that it should use a comprehensive risk-based auditing system. We were shocked to read this, considering Supt. Horne has been claiming he’s using a risk-based auditing system for years 🙄
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🍿 Conflict of Interest, Who Dis? The report details how the ADE failed to properly check potential conflicts of interest by employees who use the program.
For example, ESA Director John Ward had 12 voucher transactions auto-processed without an independent review, while two families that the program identified "as being conflicts for executive director had their transactions reviewed quickly and had missing documentation, unallowable expenses, and overpayments totaling $4,031." The report also noted that a transaction for Ward's child for music lessons did not include the required evidence of instructor accreditation.
Oh, now you want an audit? While legislative Democrats continue to demand a full audit of the program, which they have been calling upon for years, their colleagues across the aisle now appear to be coming to the table in light of this report. House Speaker Montenegro said in an interview [[link removed]] , “concerns identified by the Auditor General should be addressed directly and appropriately.”
We won’t hold our breaths for the Republicans to usher in any real reforms this session, so we are taking the reins and working tirelessly to pass the Protect Education Act! See the next section to find out how YOU can help! 👇👇👇👇👇
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DONATE [[link removed]]
READ THE FULL WEEKLY EDUCATION REPORT HERE [[link removed]]
LEA EL SEMANARIO EN ESPAÑOL [[link removed]]
Protect Education
Initiative Updates
There are only 7 weekends left to collect signatures for the Protect Education Act! [[link removed]] We are going to need every single signature to bring long overdue reform to the $1 billion ESA voucher program – and return hundreds of millions of dollars in unused funding back to our public schools!
Protect Education is launching a Halfway There Signature Slam Weekend [[link removed]] from THIS Friday, May 15 to Monday, May 18. It's time for all of us to get out there and collect every signature we possibly can to make sure we have the cushion needed to withstand massive legal challenges from out-of-state special interests. We've got this! 💪
Grab your clipboards! It’s a great time to try a local coffee shop, splash pad, park, market, festival, or other event that draws in would-be signers! We also encourage volunteers to go to your local public school events, including end-of-year concerts, plays, graduations, parent pick up and drop off lines - just make sure you stay off campus and across the street. We recommend signage to attract signers - we've had GREAT success, and school is wrapping up across AZ so this is your last chance!
If you haven't had a chance to sign yet, PLEASE DO! Protect Education is hosting signing events in every corner of Arizona — please click here [[link removed]] to find a location near you (and bring along some family and friends so they can sign and check out petitions, too!) 👉 bit.ly/pe-sigslam3 [[link removed]] ! Events with notaries are marked, if you're ready to turn in!
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💥 Need more petitions, or ready to get started??? Here’s how to plug in:
* Pick up petitions at a Depot near you – here’s the Petition Depot list [[link removed]]
* Request petitions and get connected locally - here’s the Petition Request form [[link removed]]
* Here is the training video. [[link removed]] It’s critical that everyone who circulates watches it, no matter how many times you’ve volunteered for petitions. The rules change frequently, and we want all signatures you collect to be counted.
💥 Volunteer Resource Hub: Check out our Volunteer Hub [[link removed]] , which is your one-stop shop for all circulator trainings, FAQs, and more. Make sure to bookmark or save the link! 📌
💥 Protect Education Circulator Training! It's not too late to learn how to circulate petitions to Protect Education! Join us Sunday, May 17 at 1 pm for a quick training on how to circulate. Whether you’ve collected thousands of signatures in the past or are brand new to circulating, this training will provide critical information to ensure the signatures you collect are valid!
Sunday, May 17 at 1:00pm - Virtual [[link removed]]
REGISTER HERE [[link removed]]
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Legislative Update
😡 A one-day (or zero-day) work week: The Senate met Monday to consider HCR2040 [[link removed]] , a punitive response to the Protect Ed initiative that aims to legislate away school unions, but stopped short of advancing the bill to a full vote. HCR2040 now stands a single vote in each chamber away from inclusion on our November ballots. The Senate then adjourned until next Monday. The House remains off the floor until June 4.
📅 Regular meetings: According to reports, Hobbs and Republican legislative leaders have “agreed to a regular cadence of meetings going forward” to hash out budget details behind closed doors in advance of the June 30 deadline. Hobbs also lifted her “bill moratorium,” but whether this new round of talks will truly be in “good faith” (one of two conditions she set last month in that moratorium [[link removed]] ) remains to be seen.
💸 Day 120: This past Friday marked Day 120 of what is designed to be a 100-day legislative session, a milepoint that sees lawmakers’ per diem pay drastically cut. Regardless, while Arizona lawmakers are recessed, the Arizona Mirror reports [[link removed]] they will collectively take almost $200,000 in taxpayer-provided per diem, whether or not they travel to the Capitol or do any work. The majority of legislators represent Maricopa County; their per diem is being cut from $35/day to $10/day. Non-Maricopa County lawmakers get substantially more, but see cuts as well: their per diem drops from $269/day to $135/day.
📉 The math isn’t mathing: In an op-ed this week, the director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress argued that Arizona’s Republican majority needs a reality check on their budget math. He writes for the Arizona Republic [[link removed]] , “The state is facing real constraints, yet instead of addressing the revenue shortfall, lawmakers are doubling down on the same approach: cutting taxes and hoping for a different result. That is a gamble Arizona can no longer afford… You cannot cut revenue year after year and still expect to fund the basic building blocks of a strong economy” such as public K-12 education.
🤓✅ The SOSAZ 2026 Bill Tracker [[link removed]] , a live document with full information about all bills SOSAZ supports or opposes in 2026, gives you up-to-the-minute information on where these bills stand. Bookmark the Bill Tracker [[link removed]] to stay in the know.
Must-Attend Events!
Prepared & Protected: Parent & Teacher Training! Hosted by Borderlands Resource Initiative, empower yourself with the knowledge & protocols needed to respond effectively to immigration enforcement encounters in educational spaces.
May 18, 2026, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM MST
Location shared upon registration [[link removed]]
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REGISTER HERE [[link removed]]
Subscribe to Substack!
[link removed] [[link removed]] Our newsletters don’t write themselves! Support our work by becoming a paid subscriber to Save Our Schools Arizona’s Substack [[link removed]] . A monthly or annual donation of any amount helps to keep the lights on at the Weekly Education Report so we can provide you with the latest news in education week after week.
SUBSCRIBE HERE [[link removed]]
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Contact Us
[email protected]
Save Our Schools Arizona
PO Box 28370
Tempe, AZ 85285
United States
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