Yee boards a MAGA train
Arguing that the ESA program has too much oversight, rather than too little, won't be politically fruitful.
In some quarters, Kimberly Yee has been seen as a source of hope for the revival of political fortunes for traditional Republicans. Her re-election victory in 2022 for state treasurer – when Democrats were besting MAGA candidates for U. S. Senate, governor, secretary of state, and attorney general – was widely cited as an example of a traditional Republican outperforming MAGA candidates in an Arizona general election.
I’ve been skeptical of this view of Yee. She has some now dated policy chops. However, since pursuing elected office, she has generally struck me as a politician on the make, willing to ride whatever political currents will get her to her next destination.
Moreover, Republican candidates for treasurer have usually outperformed the GOP standard. It’s just an office voters seems instinctively to think better suits a Republican at the helm. And in her short-lived gubernatorial campaign in 2022, Yee’s theme was Arizona First – a self-consciously Trumpian echo.
For those who viewed Yee as a source of hope for traditional Republicans, it had to be disorienting for her to be anointed by MAGA cage fighter Jake Hoffman as the MAGA choice to dislodge incumbent school superintendent Tom Horne in a GOP primary. Moreover, the grounds upon which Hoffman wants to defenestrate Horne is politically unfruitful territory, certainly in a general election and possibly even in a GOP primary.
An attack on Horne from the populist right is itself a bit disorienting. Horne was taking on wokeism when it was more of an irritant than a cause for the populist right. He has been Arizona’s chief critic of bilingual instruction in public schools, contending that becoming proficient in English should take priority. He’s been a staunch supporter of school choice.
Hoffman’s beef with Horne seems to be that he won’t give homeschoolers an open checkbook under the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which funds education outside of public district and charter schools. Yee chided Horne for too tight of a review process for ESA payments and reimbursements.
Let me preface my assessment with the declaration that I’m a staunch supporter of vouchers. To me, it is a matter of social equity. If the state is going to collect a pool of tax money to educate children, parents who want to send their kids to private schools or homeschool them shouldn’t be deprived of a proportionate share of that common pool.
Since ESA eligibility has been made universal, the overwhelming majority of students participating attend private schools and reimbursement for private school tuition and fees constitutes the overwhelming majority of dollars expended.
There can be a policy objection to the use of public funds to subsidize private school tuition and fees, particularly since the private schools in Arizona are nearly all religiously affiliated. Secular private schools are a rarity in Arizona, particularly compared to other parts of the country. And, indeed, such a policy objection has been vigorously made, and continues to be made, against the Arizona program.
However, reimbursement for private school tuition and fees is a rather straightforward transaction and not one subject to being characterized as an abuse of the program. All of the controversy is over piecemeal reimbursements for homeschoolers and special needs kids.
Nearly a fifth of ESA recipients are special needs kids, and the highest awards go to them. However, that is tied to an individualized education plan that has some degree of scrutiny built into the front end.
Critics seize on outlandish requests for piecemeal payments or reimbursements, such as one recently for a $16,000 cello. While the ESA law establishes categories of expenses that are to be covered, the state doesn’t maintain a list of materials or vendors that are deemed pre-approved. And there is a lot of gray regarding supplemental materials and extracurricular enrichment activities.
As a result, there is a large volume of payment and reimbursement requests to be processed. To protect taxpayers and public support for the program, Horne has tightened the review and oversight protocols and recommended other changes to the state Board of Education. This has resulted in a delay in some approvals, which has homeschool parents politically agitated.
In my view, homeschoolers should be limited to pre-approved materials. That way, there would be no need for review or delay in payments or reimbursements.
And those materials should be strictly curricular, such as text books, lesson plans, and evaluations. Capital goods, such as computers, and enrichment activities, such as field trips, shouldn’t be covered. If homeschool parents felt the pre-approved materials were too limited, they could lobby for expansions, not have them considered on an individual basis.
Homeschool parents shouldn’t be excluded from the common pool, but taxpayers don’t owe them full compensation for their decision to keep their children out of any school, public or private.
Outlandish requests, although not amounting to much in terms of the overall program, attract a lot of public attention and stick in the public consciousness. Even in a Republican primary, I suspect the predominant sentiment will be that the ESA program has received insufficient oversight rather than too much. In a general election, that will unquestionably be the predominant sentiment.
The assumption is that Hoffman will deliver the MAGA infrastructure behind Yee, which has been determinative in GOP primaries in the last several election cycles. However, this is a narrow and politically unfruitful case to make against Horne, whose tenure and positions should otherwise be acceptable to the populist right. Horne, at 80, is awfully old for this fight. But if he makes it, he might end up demonstrating the limitations of Hoffman’s influence.
As for Yee, illusions should be abandoned. She’s happy to board a MAGA train, if she thinks it gets her to the next destination.
Reach Robb at robtrobb@gmail.com.