{"id":24636,"date":"2024-10-07T12:26:31","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T16:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=24636"},"modified":"2024-10-07T12:26:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T16:26:31","slug":"homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements","title":{"rendered":"Homeschooling Moms Sue Arizona Department of Education Over Voucher Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24663\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24663\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/Homeschool-moms_credit-Goldwater-Institute.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-24663\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/Homeschool-moms_credit-Goldwater-Institute-550x413.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24663\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Goldwater Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two homeschool moms are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goldwaterinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Complaint-FINAL.pdf\">suing<\/a> the Arizona Department of Education after a new rule was enforced with \u201cburdensome\u201d requirements to justify reimbursed education expenses. Velia Aguirre and Rosemary McAtee participate in the state of Arizona\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>Recently however, the state\u2019s 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azed.gov\/esa\">statement<\/a> that he was against enforcing the rule but was informed it he had no standing to resist the order. \u201cWhen I received the attorney general\u2019s 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,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>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 <em>Where the Red Fern Grows, <\/em>and pencils and erasers. She called the process to document the needs for supplies \u201ccumbersome.\u201d \u201cIt&#8217;s very hard. Because I&#8217;m spending several hours a week developing curriculum for things I&#8217;ve never had to develop curriculum for when I was a district employee or being in the program for four years. So it&#8217;s cumbersome. It&#8217;s really time-consuming. It&#8217;s burdensome,\u201d she told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/arizona-homeschooling-moms-say-state-imposing-burdensome-regulations-policy-change-feels-deliberate\"><em>Fox News Digital<\/em><\/a><em>. <\/em>The State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s office stated that order is regarding recent fraud that has been uncovered with improper use of ESA funds. \u201cThe Attorney General has simply stated what is required by law. The law doesn\u2019t prevent parents from purchasing paper and pencils, but it does require that materials purchased with ESA funds be used for a child\u2019s education,\u201d the office said. \u201cWith instances of voucher dollars being spent on things like ski passes, luxury car driving lessons, and grand pianos, it\u2019s clear that providing documentation on spending is essential to prevent the misuse of taxpayer funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s Board of Education \u201chas likewise approved rules for the program explicitly permitting the purchase of these materials without additional documentation.\u201d Joe Seyton, a senior communications manager for the Goldwater Institute told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/az-homeschooling-moms-battling-latest-attack-on-school-choice.html\"><em>The Christian Post<\/em><\/a> he believes the move is a political attack against school choice. \u201cThis is just the latest attack that we&#8217;ve seen from opponents of school choice on parents&#8217; right to choose the best education that works for their individual child&#8217;s needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two homeschool moms are suing the Arizona Department of Education after a new rule was enforced with \u201cburdensome\u201d requirements to justify reimbursed education expenses. Velia Aguirre and Rosemary McAtee participate in the state of Arizona\u2019s Education Empowerment Account (ESA), which allows homeschool families to receive 90 percent of state taxpayer dollars that are normally used&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":24663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Homeschooling Moms Sue Arizona Department of Education Over Voucher Requirements<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two homeschool moms are suing the AZ Department of Education after a new rule was enforced with \u201cburdensome\u201d requirements to justify reimbursed education expenses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homeschooling Moms Sue Arizona Department of Education Over Voucher Requirements\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two homeschool moms are suing the AZ Department of Education after a new rule was enforced with \u201cburdensome\u201d requirements to justify reimbursed education expenses.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-07T16:26:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/Homeschool-moms_credit-Goldwater-Institute.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Homeschooling Moms Sue Arizona Department of Education Over Voucher Requirements","description":"Two homeschool moms are suing the AZ Department of Education after a new rule was enforced with \u201cburdensome\u201d requirements to justify reimbursed education expenses.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Homeschooling Moms Sue Arizona Department of Education Over Voucher Requirements","og_description":"Two homeschool moms are suing the AZ Department of Education after a new rule was enforced with \u201cburdensome\u201d requirements to justify reimbursed education expenses.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2024-10-07T16:26:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/Homeschool-moms_credit-Goldwater-Institute.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements","name":"Homeschooling Moms Sue Arizona Department of Education Over Voucher Requirements","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/Homeschool-moms_credit-Goldwater-Institute.jpg","datePublished":"2024-10-07T16:26:31+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-07T16:26:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79"},"description":"Two homeschool moms are suing the AZ Department of Education after a new rule was enforced with \u201cburdensome\u201d requirements to justify reimbursed education expenses.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/Homeschool-moms_credit-Goldwater-Institute.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/10\/Homeschool-moms_credit-Goldwater-Institute.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Goldwater Institute"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/10\/homeschooling-moms-sue-arizona-department-of-education-over-voucher-requirements#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Homeschooling Moms Sue Arizona Department of Education Over Voucher Requirements"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79","name":"Beliefnet Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6f7\/6f77b66a3e683e8aeba5be93e4ae3e04x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6f7\/6f77b66a3e683e8aeba5be93e4ae3e04x96.jpg","caption":"Beliefnet Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/skirk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24666,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24636\/revisions\/24666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}