School vouchers fraudulently bought millions of dollars in gift cards and condoms: report

Millions of dollars more in fraud have been discovered in Arizona's controversial school voucher program.

According to 12 News, "records show at least 18,000 [Empowerment Scholarship] account holders — close to 20% of the entire program — used voucher funds intended for private and home schooling on a myriad of banned purchases, according to Arizona Department of Education records."

Specifically, according to the documents, nearly 84,000 banned purchases were made through ESAs, amounting to around $10 million. Those purchases included "Parents paying themselves several thousand dollars each; $1,500 gift cards; electric dirt bikes; custom tires; luxury hotel stays; insurance payments; wedding gifts; [and] even sexually explicit items like condoms, lubricants and lingerie."

While all of this has been going on, per the report, "the Department of Education and Treasurer's Office, which co-manage the program, have slow-walked or refused to respond to public records requests on total ESA spending for nearly a year from 12News, leaving gaps in the public’s understanding of how widespread the issue may be."

While Arizona's governor, Katie Hobbs, is a Democrat, state superintendent Tom Horne and treasurer Kimberly Yee are both Republicans who sit in separately elected offices.

The ESA program, the first statewide program in America to let any family receive public funds to attend any private secular or parochial school of their choice, was sold to the public as a means of giving lower-income families greater freedom. However, studies have found that the vast majority of funding is flowing to wealthy families.

Allegations of fraud in ESA first surfaced last year, with reports that families were using the money to buy diamond rings and televisions, among other things. Horne has defended the program, said the fraud is a small percentage of the money being spent, and insisted his office has already recovered $600,000 in fraud.