Tom Horne, State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Arizona Department of Education, expressed disappointment in a March 17 letter to KPNX President and General Manager Kate Morris regarding recent coverage of Arizona’s universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
Horne said the Department prepared a news release to address what he described as an “outrageous report from KPNX that said up to 20% of ESA expenditures involve fraud or inappropriate purchases.” He said, “This was not only false, but it was also obviously false. Roughly 60% of the program is tuition for private schools with virtually no problems, so you were suggesting that half of the remaining purchases in the program were fraudulent. That is ridiculous on its face.”
According to Horne, the Department recently conducted a statistical analysis to determine accurate rates of unallowable expenses and fraud within the ESA program. He said he was invited by anchor Troy Hayden for an interview about these results and agreed not to release their press statement until after the interview aired. Horne wrote, “My interview with Troy Hayden never ran. Instead, a few short clips of my comments were used by Joe Dana, in an attack piece to undermine confidence in our statistical analysis. This was a despicable trick. His story was especially inappropriate because it gave the appearance that Joe Dana had conducted the interview, and it included segments with an erroneous and ridiculous critique of our methodology from Jennifer Jennings.”
Horne defended his department’s study, stating it was conducted by Joseph Guzman, who holds a PhD including a Master’s degree in statistics. He criticized Jennings’ qualifications as a sociologist and opponent of school choice: “She is not qualified to comment on Dr. Guzman’s sampling methods.” Horne also addressed criticisms regarding sample selection: “Our random sample of 3,000 orders from the current academic year was representative of the whole program. While the previous study included non-random selections from the Reimbursement and MarketPlace categories, excluding Direct Pay and Debit Card data. Anyone from our team would be happy to help her with the reading of either report.”
In closing his letter, Horne requested that KPNX air his full interview with Hayden and urged station leadership to consider whether certain reporters can provide balanced coverage: “I also urge KPNX to evaluate whether certain reporters, such as Mr. Dana, are so immersed in their opposition to school choice, that they can no longer provide professionally balanced and factually accurate reports,” according to the official roster page.
