The non-profit group Love Your School teaches parents how to use ESA tax dollars while on vacations, including overseas trips and jaunts to San Diego
SAN DIEGO — Arizona private and homeschool families with Empowerment Scholarships are using education tax dollars to subsidize their vacations, including buying tickets for kids to SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo while on jaunts to Southern California, a 12News I-Team investigation has found.
The purchases are legal under Arizona’s vastly expanding ESA program, which will cost $1 billion this school year for about 90,000 students. Further, one prominent school voucher group teaches parents how to do it.
‘The potential is endless’
Subsidized vacations with Arizona tax dollars are the latest findings by the 12News I-Team, which found that Empowerment Scholarships also largely help wealthy families and while financially hurting high-performing Arizona school districts and charters.
“We are cutting programs every single budget year, and yet people are going on our dime to the San Diego Zoo,” said state Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson, who was stunned when told of 12News’ findings.
Love Your School, a non-profit organization, recently held an online webinar to show parents how to maximize their ESA funds, including ways to subsidize their vacations.
“I know a lot of people go to San Diego, the San Diego Zoo is covered, and that is an excellent learning experience. So, ESA, really, the potential is endless,” said one of the webinar speakers.
Jenny Clark, a homeschool mom and nationally recognized school voucher advocate, runs Love Your School.
Public records show Clark’s pay has more than quadrupled to $102,000 annually since co-founding Love Your School in 2020.
Clark did not respond to several requests for comment.
During the online session, which 12News viewed, parents were informed that ESA spending must be allocated for education. However, parents were encouraged to be creative.
“If you are going down to Mexico, you can find something educational down there, and a tour that you’re taking down there, you can get reimbursed for that with the proper paperwork,” one presenter said.
Love Your School isn’t alone in helping ESA parents subsidize their vacations with Arizona tax dollars.
A Facebook group for Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts offers tips on how to get San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld tickets for children covered with ESA funds.
Those tickets are pricey.
A single-day San Diego Zoo ticket is $66 or $76, depending on the child’s age, while a SeaWorld ticket is just under $123. (Prices are lower online.) If a family gets a membership approved, those packages come with additional free tickets that siblings and parents can use.
Parents in the Facebook group added that those using ESA funds can “be reimbursed for educational tickets anywhere.”
Another parent noted, “Location doesn’t matter. You could go abroad and have educational experiences reimbursed as well… not limited to one day.”
‘Everything has an educational component’
ESA Director John Ward said using ESA funds while on vacation is appropriate and legal.
“If a student was going to a zoo and submitted a curriculum when they submitted a reimbursement for the zoo, that would be an allowed expense,” he said.
Ward said the beauty of ESA is that it gives families who couldn’t typically go to places like the San Diego Zoo an opportunity to do so.
While state ESA spending guidelines allow for zoo tickets, they prohibit overnight accommodations and food.
Tyler Carter, SeaWorld San Diego park president, said all aspects of his park are educational.
“Whether it’s seeing our animals, meeting our educators, riding a rollercoaster. Everything has an educational component of the importance of protecting our oceans, protecting wildlife and what we can do for conservation,” Carter said.
Carter also recommended that families go online to find bargains.
However, regardless of the cost, most tickets to San Diego attractions or others outside of Arizona are likely to get approved.
That’s because the Department of Education implemented a policy in December because of a backlog of ESA reimbursement requests.
Since then, all expenses less than $2,000 have been approved automatically, without any review, with the plan to audit later.
Critics like Gutierrez said that can be exploited.
“You could pay for a $2,000 Amazon gift card, or $1,999 Amazon gift card and use it for whatever you want to, and it’s approved,” she said. “School districts are fighting for every dime they can get, and these families are getting $2,000 a pop…It’s outrageously inequitable.”
