Two homeschool moms are suing the Arizona Department of Education after a new rule was enforced with “burdensome” requirements to justify reimbursed education expenses. Velia Aguirre and Rosemary McAtee participate in the state of Arizona’s Education Empowerment Account (ESA), which allows homeschool families to receive 90 percent of state taxpayer dollars that are normally used for public and charter schools. The ESA allows these parents to spend the funds on educational materials such as schoolbooks. The program was first started in 2012 and was accessible initially to a very limited amount of students until it was made universal in 2022. Homeschool families in the state that choose to not participate in the ESA must sign an affidavit with the state of their intention to homeschool and waive receiving state taxpayer funds, while those in the ESA must sign a contract with the state.

Recently however, the state’s Attorney General, Democrat Kris Mayes, informed ESA director John Ward that he must stop reimbursing supplementary educational materials without proper documentation showing the materials were necessary for a specific curriculum. Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said in a statement that he was against enforcing the rule but was informed it he had no standing to resist the order. “When I received the attorney general’s message, I sent it to the most knowledgeable people in my department. I asked them to look at it, not as an advocate, because we all disagree with the Attorney General, but in a neutral way, as though they were judges to determine if they could give me a reasonable assurance of success. They analyzed the statutes on which the attorney general relied, and indicated to me that as a neutral judge, they would rule against me if I made a fight out of it and refused to comply. Getting into a fight and losing, would be much more damaging,” he wrote.

After the rule was enforced, Aguirre, a former Special Education teacher who educates her three special needs boys at home, stated she was denied reimbursements for such materials as math and spelling books, a copy of Where the Red Fern Grows, and pencils and erasers. She called the process to document the needs for supplies “cumbersome.” “It’s very hard. Because I’m spending several hours a week developing curriculum for things I’ve never had to develop curriculum for when I was a district employee or being in the program for four years. So it’s cumbersome. It’s really time-consuming. It’s burdensome,” she told Fox News Digital. The State’s Attorney’s office stated that order is regarding recent fraud that has been uncovered with improper use of ESA funds. “The Attorney General has simply stated what is required by law. The law doesn’t prevent parents from purchasing paper and pencils, but it does require that materials purchased with ESA funds be used for a child’s education,” the office said. “With instances of voucher dollars being spent on things like ski passes, luxury car driving lessons, and grand pianos, it’s clear that providing documentation on spending is essential to prevent the misuse of taxpayer funds.”

According to the Goldwater Institute, which is representing the two families, Arizona law currently permits ESA funds to be used for educational materials and the new rule violates current law. It also stated that the state’s Board of Education “has likewise approved rules for the program explicitly permitting the purchase of these materials without additional documentation.” Joe Seyton, a senior communications manager for the Goldwater Institute told The Christian Post he believes the move is a political attack against school choice. “This is just the latest attack that we’ve seen from opponents of school choice on parents’ right to choose the best education that works for their individual child’s needs.”