Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has criticized Attorney General Kris Mayes for not pursuing several cases of suspected fraud in the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. According to Horne, the Arizona Department of Education referred multiple cases to the Attorney General’s office, but these were declined.
Horne stated, “The Attorney General says she is investigating the ESA program over misuse of funds, but she knows perfectly well that the department is not misusing funds. Further, she is being hypocritical because we have referred multiple cases to her office for investigation and she has declined to take the cases. We have examples of at least three cases totaling $158,000 that she turned down. These included $14,000 for vaginal probiotics and other lifestyle items, $64,000 for crystals and more than $80,000 for technical items such as laptops. These funds should have been used for children’s educational needs.”
He continued by outlining measures his department has taken to prevent fraud: “We have implemented counter-fraud measures. Every ESA purchase over $2,000 is audited before payment and we use risk-based auditing, which is provided in state law, to audit purchases under $2,000. The department has recovered more than $400,000 in funds to date. The Attorney General is well aware of this because we have communicated these and many other facts to her office.”
The ESA program provides public funding intended for children’s education expenses in Arizona.
