PHOENIX — Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program has reached a significant milestone, with more than 100,000 students now enrolled in the controversial school choice initiative.

The ESA program allows parents to use tax money that would have been allocated for their child’s public school education to pay for private schooling or homeschooling expenses instead.

Since the program’s universal expansion in 2022, more than 6,000 students join each quarter on average, and the state’s ESA website shows 100,208 ESA students are currently enrolled as of January 20.

Shift in student demographics

Early data showed most ESA students represented additional expenses – children already homeschooled or attending private schools. However, recent trends show a significant shift.

Now, four in 10 new ESA students weren’t previously funded by public education dollars, down from eight in 10 when the program began.

Geographic concentration in suburban areas

ESA enrollment is most popular in the Valley’s suburban communities, particularly in the southeast region. Four of the five ZIP codes adding the most ESA students are located in Queen Creek and San Tan Valley.

The one outlier is ZIP code 85365, which covers the Yuma Proving Grounds area and serves mostly military families.

Public schools losing students to ESA

The school districts experiencing the highest percentage of students leaving for ESA include Kingman Unified, Alhambra Elementary, Dysart Unified, Amphitheatre Unified in Tucson, and Queen Creek Unified.

Among charter schools, online institutions are seeing the most departures. These include ASU Preparatory Digital, Arizona Connections Academy, American Virtual Academy, American Leadership Academy, and charter schools run by Eduprize Schools.

How ESA funds are being spent

Nearly six in 10 ESA dollars spent last quarter went toward private school tuition or textbooks, totaling almost $104 million.

About $70 million was spent on homeschooling or supplemental materials – a category that has drawn scrutiny for some questionable expenses.

Spending drops significantly for other categories, including online learning, disability services for non-universal students, technology, and classes at postsecondary institutions like Mesa Community College.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.