Horne: AG Mayes refuses to pursue more than $158K in potential ESA fraud

Threat to sue ESA over funds use is hypocritical

 PHOENIX – State schools superintendent Tom Horne says Attorney General Kris Mayes’ threat to sue the Department of Education over the operation of the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program is hypocritical since her office has turned down several potential criminal referrals sent by the department.

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 added, “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.”

Horne concluded, “There are two people in this state who are trying to silently kill the ESA program, the Attorney General and Governor. There are families with three children, two of whom are doing fine in public school, but the needs of the third child are not being met. Now parents have the ability to place the child in a school that does meet those needs. I don’t understand how anyone can be opposed to that unless they are so immersed in ideology that they forget about the interests of students, but two such people are the Governor and Attorney General.”