@CaptMarkKelly Hey Captain, did you know the public school system receives a portion of the funds for students they don’t even have to service? You really need to educate yourself. How does that lobby money taste?
@CraigHarrisNews I would love to see you interview the actual families who used their ESA funds to buy diamond rings and lingerie. Produce the receipts they submitted and how those amounts were actually approved and re-imbursed. Your ties to Red for Ed make your reporting highly dubious.
@arizona_sos@SenMarkKelly People really need to go back to first principles. Where did the "public" money come from? Who are they serving with that money? Are they doing it well? What happens when the ESA families completely opt out of your failing system and you have even less "public" money?
@SenMarkKelly You can tell the outside money is coming in and the corrupt politicians are all too eager to gobble it up. Let parents decide how their kids are educated. Public schools receive money for ESA students who they don't even serve.
@KCcowanartgal@CraigHarrisNews@12News Why should it be “killed”? Pretty poor choice of words for an “author” to use for a program that provides parental choice for their kids education.
Let me help you out, Mark. You’re framing this as a binary choice—either reimburse disallowed expenses, ban them in public schools, or amend the ESA handbook—but that misses the broader context of educational equity and inconsistent scrutiny. The recent 12News report highlights that over 100 ESA accounts spent about $21,000 on Disney-related items since 2022, a minuscule fraction (less than 0.002%) of the program’s $1 billion annual budget. This has been sensationalized as “fraud” or misuse, with Disneyland serving as an emotional lightning rod for clickbait headlines, despite many of these reimbursements being approved by ESA staff for purported educational ties, such as park-based learning programs.
In contrast, public schools routinely allocate taxpayer funds for similar field trips without facing equivalent outrage or labels of “vacations.” For instance, Deer Valley Unified School District alone spent $560,407 on trips to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, SeaWorld, and other sites, including chaperones, logistics, and transportation—all justified as enriching student experiences. Across Arizona and beyond, public districts invest millions annually in such excursions (e.g., band, choir, and STEM groups often travel to Disney’s Imagination Campus workshops), and academic research supports their value: studies from Education Next and the Student & Youth Travel Association show field trips enhance critical thinking, historical empathy, tolerance, and long-term academic engagement, with lasting benefits like higher graduation rates and income.