This summer, as countless homeschooling families enroll in Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) prep for the upcoming school year, they’re discovering they will need to jump through bureaucratic hoops to receive essential classroom supplies, including notebooks, writing implements, and erasers.
I encountered this obstacle when I was informed via email that my purchase was denied because there was no “formal curriculum with a material list that requires or recommends the requested item(s)” or “proof of enrollment in a course of study and a material list.”
Arizona’s ESA program — the first of its kind in the country — goes back to 2009 when the state Supreme Court struck down a scholarship program helping disabled students and foster kids to attend private schools. The state Supreme Court wasn’t averse to helping these student populations, but any help had to be provided in a way that didn’t “violate the constitution.” The solution: an expansion of the program that allowed every K-12 student in Arizona to apply for the program. Any public school child was eligible.
Notably, the program preserved school choice, allowing parents to enroll their children in a private school or homeschool. The funds allocated to the public school for a child would now be given to the parent.
With three children and an uncertain income — my husband is in construction, and I’m an author — the program has been a Godsend for us. So you can imagine my confusion and frustration when essential classroom supplies, which required no additional
