Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program, better known as ESA, is designed to let parents use public money for their children’s education. Families receive taxpayer-funded dollars in an account that can pay for things like tuition, tutoring, curriculum, and approved educational materials. But since November 2024, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) has been automatically approving every ESA purchase of $2,000 or less. The policy was meant to ease a massive backlog of requests. Its effect, though, is that most transactions are paid instantly, without anyone checking if they comply with the rules, and only reviewed weeks or months later.
The records generated under that system are startling and telling at the same time. They show purchases of diamond rings, Victoria’s Secret lingerie, and household refrigerators made with public money. But the same records are also evidence that the system is not completely blind. They exist because ADE eventually reviews and flags these transactions, requiring refunds or other corrective action. The problem isn’t the absence of oversight, it’s the delay and the sheer volume of transactions moving through a very small compliance team.
In data obtained and analyzed by Fourth Estate 48, ADE’s own export labeled “AutoFulfilled Orders” documents 1,212,635 purchases totaling $124.3 million in just a few months after the policy change. Because auto-approval applies to everything at or under $2,000, nearly the entire stream went through unchecked. In fact, 99.998 percent of all transactions were $2,000 or less, representing 99.95 percent of the total dollars spent. Only 23 purchases exceeded that threshold.
That means almost every ESA dollar since November 2024 has moved first and been reviewed later. For parents, the system feels seamless; for auditors, it creates a mountain of work that is always behind.
