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Thursday, Mar. 5, 2026

Does Arizona’s school vouchers program have a fraud rate of 0.001%? 

Mia Osmonbekov, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
no

An analysis of Arizona Department of Education records by 12News found that about 22% of Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) purchases were for prohibited, non-educational items, suggesting misspending rates higher than the often-cited 0.001%. 

The new finding was based on an internal department analysis of more than 384,000 ESA transactions from late 2024 to fall of 2025. 

The 0.001% fraud figure originates from a 2020 report by the Arizona Auditor General, which reviewed 168,020 approved ESA transactions between October 2018 and October 2019. The audit identified one transaction at an unapproved merchant, totaling $30.

The 2020 audit, however, does not represent the total rate of misspending or fraud. It examined only approved transactions and did not account for unapproved purchases made at approved merchants. The review was also conducted before the program’s expansion to universal eligibility in July 2022. 

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.

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